Shooting in Cape injures one Thursday

CAPE GIRARDEAU (SMNS) -- A shooting Thursday afternoon on South Ellis Street sent a man to the hospital.

Just after 3 p.m. Thursday, Cape Girardeau police received a call about five or six shots being fired in the 900 block of South Ellis.

As officers were responding to the scene, they noticed a white Chevrolet Cavalier in the middle of Sprigg Street, a block east of the area where the shots had been reported, Cpl. Darin Hickey of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said.

A passenger in the car had what appeared to be a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his shoulder, Lt. Rodney Barker said at the scene.

The victim, who was in severe pain, was taken to the hospital, Hickey said.

"Doesn't appear to be life-threatening, but we're going to let the medical professionals treat him," he said.

Barker said police were in the initial stages of the investigation and were trying to identify witnesses. He did not yet know the motive in the shooting.

Crime-scene technicians examined the Cavalier and searched the backyard of a house in the 900 block of Ellis Street.

A visibly agitated woman sat on the ground, holding a small dog, in front of a house on Sprigg Street as officers explained they needed to take her car to process in the investigation. The woman, who apparently owned the Cavalier, could be heard telling police she needed her vehicle and complaining because she had "cops all over [her] house."

Her relationship to the victim was not clear.

Hickey said police recovered a pistol from the car, but they did not yet know who owned the gun or whether it was the weapon involved in the shooting.

Officers were trying to piece together the events that led up to the shooting and planned to interview the victim later, Hickey said.

"When he's able to speak, we'll speak to him," he said.

Hickey said officers were canvassing the neighborhood to make sure no one else had been injured.

"We think it was pretty well confined to one residence," he said.