CEDAR HILL, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis-area man was shot to death and an officer was wounded in what authorities said was an hourslong standoff between the man and a sheriff’s department tactical team investigating a potential homicide.
Authorities later found another body inside the man’s home and determined that the person had died before the shootout.
Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said deputies were serving a search warrant Friday evening at a home outside of Cedar Hill, a town of about 1,700 residents 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis. He said the man immediately began firing at officers.
“They exchanged gunfire back and forth over a couple of hours,” Marshak told reporters in a video posted by his department on Facebook. “The suspect was actively trying to kill police officers.”
Marshak said the man was shot by sheriff’s deputies. He later identified him as 36-year-old Anthony Legens.
He said sheriff’s detectives were investigating a missing person case they linked to Legens and believe the subject of that case was killed. It wasn’t clear Saturday whose body was found in Legens’ home.
The sheriff’s department did not name the sheriff’s officer who was shot, though Marshak described the officer as a six-year veteran of the department and “one of our best.”
The sheriff said the officer was shot below his tactical vest and was taken to a local hospital for surgery. Marshak tweeted Saturday that the officer was recovering after surgery and was “in good spirits.”
The sheriff said officers were near Legens’ house “for a while” gathering intelligence before they served the warrant and before the man knew they were there.
Marshak also said Legens had a lengthy history of alleged offenses that included burglary, drug crimes, domestic assaults, assaulting a law enforcement officer and illegal possession of a weapon.
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