Victim of fatal shooting identified

A Cape Girardeau man was shot to death early Saturday morning in the 800 block of Jefferson Avenue -- the city's second homicide in as many weeks, and the second shooting in less than six hours.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton identified the victim as 26-year-old Anthony Hempstead.

The shooting report came in at 12:09 a.m. Saturday. Police responding to a call about a person down in the alley found a man on the ground with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Hempstead was taken to a local hospital, where Clifton pronounced him dead, the release stated.

The Cape Girardeau County/Bollinger County Major Case Squad is investigating.

Clifton said an autopsy is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.

At this stage of the investigation, police do not have reason to believe the homicide -- the city's second of the year -- is connected to a shooting that occurred less than five and a half hours earlier in the same area of town, said Sgt. Jason Selzer of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

"There's nothing in the case to connect it," Selzer said Saturday. "We have no indication right now that they're related."

The earlier shooting, which occurred just before 7 p.m. Friday in the 1100 block of Cousin Street -- about four blocks from the alley where Hempstead was killed -- left a man in serious condition with gunshot wounds, Sgt. Adam Glueck of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said Friday evening.

The victim in that case was taken to a hospital by private vehicle, Glueck said. He did not know the extent or location of the victim's injuries.

Online court records show Hempstead was on probation after pleading guilty to drug possession and DWI in 2012. He had been sentenced to seven years in prison but was released in August after undergoing drug treatment, online court records show.

Hempstead previously had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance in 2006 and one count of second-degree drug trafficking in 2009.

June has been a violent month in Cape Girardeau, with at least four shootings -- two fatal -- in the city and another north of town in Cape Girardeau County.

Joshua Edward Dibert, 34, was shot to death June 20 in a vehicle near the intersection of Henderson Avenue and Good Hope Street, about seven blocks from the alley where Hempstead was killed, and about three blocks from the site of the shooting Friday evening.

On June 16, a 14-year-old was shot while walking in an alley in the 1000 block of Bloomfield Street, and a man was shot in the abdomen June 4 in the 500 block of Olive Street.

A June 5 shooting in the 1300 block of Village Lane, outside city limits, sent a man to the hospital with serious injuries that required surgery after two unidentified suspects reportedly fired into his home, striking him multiple times.

Last week, the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department announced the County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund Board had authorized $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Village Lane shooting.

The board also authorized $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in Dibert's death.

Reporter Savanna Maue contributed some information for this story.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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