A southwest Missouri police officer was charged Wednesday in the shooting death of an Arkansas man who was killed following a chase.
Brian G. Massa, 34, of Anderson, entered a not guilty plea to one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter during his arraignment in McDonald County Circuit Court.
Online court records did not indicate whether Anderson had a lawyer, and the McDonald County prosecutor was not immediately available for comment. Court records show he has been released on bond.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol had been investigating the shooting of Bobby L. Stacy, 26, of Gravette, Ark., for several months.
Stacy died at a Tulsa, Okla., hospital in March, one day after he was shot.
Massa, an officer with the Southwest City Police Department, had been pursuing Stacy’s stolen sport utility vehicle when the SUV crashed into a bridge abutment in a rural area just north of the Arkansas border and east of the Oklahoma border. Court documents show the chase started after Massa attempted to pull over Stacy for a traffic violation.
Sgt. James Musche, a patrol investigator, wrote in the probable cause statement that Massa fired four shots at Stacy while Stacy was inside the SUV after the crash.
Massa told Musche he fired the shots because he feared the SUV was going to strike him.
But the statement said the round that struck Stacy in the head and killed him was fired after the SUV had passed Massa and Stacy was no longer a threat.
Musche said a McDonald County sheriff’s deputy reported seeing Massa pick up a shell casing lying in the road between Massa’s patrol car and the SUV. The affidavit says investigators recovered three shell casings at the scene.
Musche said Massa’s account of the shooting didn’t match the physical evidence at the scene and video footage recorded by a camera mounted in Massa’s patrol car.
Southwest City Police Department Chief Monte Brannon said Massa is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.
Ryan McKee, the mayor of the town of about 800, called the shooting a “tragedy” in a written statement.
“It is not, nor ever has been the policy of the Southwest City Police Department to serve as judge and jury,” McKee said.
