ST. LOUIS — Police continued an apparent standoff early Monday with a St. Louis County man wanted in connection with a shooting that killed one Hermann, Missouri, police officer and injured another on Sunday night.
Hermann police Sgt. Mason Griffith died of his injuries at a hospital after being shot at a Casey's convenience store in the small town just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The Missouri Highway Patrol announced Griffith's dead early Monday.
The second Hermann officer who was shot remains hospitalized in serious condition, the patrol said.
The patrol issued a "Blue Alert" and identified the suspect as Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, of Eureka. Such an alert is issued when an officer is killed or seriously injured.
Since about three hours after the shooting, the manhunt was focused heavily near a house in Hermann along Highway 19, not far from the store where the shooting happened.
Officers were asking for spotlights to see between two homes. The scene was described as a standoff of sorts, as police surrounded the home and were yelling at the gunman to come outside.
Police earlier had searched near a motel on East 10th Street in Hermann, where Simpson and his girlfriend may have rented a room Sunday.
Cpl. Kyle Green of the Missouri Highway Patrol said in an interview early Monday that he had no developments to report on the gunman.
The Hermann officers were shot at Casey's convenience store at 115 South Highway 19. Authorities have not released details describing what led to the shooting or said if officers returned fire. Hermann's police chief, Marlon Walker, could not be reached for comment.
The Missouri Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control is investigating the case.
After Sunday night's shooting, at least one patient was being rushed to a hospital by ambulance. A dispatcher told the first medic who arrived at the convenience store that a medical helicopter was being sent to meet them at a nearby hospital but that the helicopter was 34 minutes away.
Authorities in several counties were on notice early on because police said they weren't sure which way he was headed. Police also didn't know if Simpson had run from the convenience store or driven away in a 2014 black Jeep Wrangler, with Missouri license plate RF5A0P.
Police described Simpson as a white man who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 180 pounds. He has red hair and hazel eyes and was wearing a black baseball hat, a black long-sleeve shirt, black pants and tan boots.
Online Missouri court records show Simpson has criminal cases for drugs, weapons offenses, assault and property damage. Last August, a St. Louis County judge issued a warrant for his arrest when Simpson failed to show up in court in a drug possession case.
A 2017 weapons case out of Warren County has lingered in the courts for years while he was free from custody. Simpson was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and two counts of unlawful possession, transport, manufacture, repair or sale of an illegal weapon on Sept. 13, 2017.
He was set to stand trial in 2020 but that was canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions, a docket entry in the case shows. An arrest warrant was issued when he failed to show up in court for a hearing last September. About a month later, the case was removed from the trial docket until the outstanding warrants were served, according to court documents.
