JEFFERSON CITY - Recent officer-involved fatal shootings in Jefferson City and Columbia have brought an issue in transparency to light: body cameras.
Seven states currently require body cameras statewide: Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Carolina.
Missouri is not one of the required states, and as a result, body camera usage varies throughout the state. Columbia, Camdenton, Osage Beach, Moberly and Sedalia police departments are some of the departments that require body cameras, as well as the Boone, Cole and Callaway County Sheriff s Departments.
While Jefferson City, Mexico and Eldon do not have body cameras in place, the Chief of Eldon Police says he is applying for grants to get them worked into the department.Â
A Killeen man was sentenced earlier this week to a term of deferred adjudication probation after using a spoon to beat an infant boy last year.
Dejuan Turner, 29, pleaded guilty on April 6 to a third-degree felony charge of intentional injury to a child. On Tuesday afternoon in the 27th Judicial District Court, Judge John Gauntt sentenced Turner to four years of deferred adjudication probation.
The judge followed a plea agreement in the case.
On March 18, 2020, Belton police responded to a residence to take a report of possible child abuse. The woman told police that she had picked up her child, who was less than a year old, from the childâs fatherâs residence in Killeen and noticed âextensive bruising to the buttocks and rear thighsâ of the child.