KENNETT – Patrick Skelton, 28, of Senath, is in custody after shooting at a Dunklin County Deputy and a family after the deputy responded to a domestic assault.
Thursday evening, a deputy responded to a domestic assault on Highway Z near Kennett. When he responded he found Skelton’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old child, said Dunklin County Prosecutor Nicholas Jainin a press release. Soon after, her parents arrived on the scene.
While the deputy was gathering information, Skelton, who had crashed a car nearby began shooting at them. One bullet struck one of the victim’s vehicles. Law enforcement officers arrested the defendant in a ditch nearby with a 9mm pistol. After being taken into custody, he threatened another police officer and said he wished he had killed the deputy.
Jain charged Skelton with five counts of assault in the first degree, five counts of armed criminal action, seven counts of unlawful use of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, domestic assault in the third degree, and driving while intoxicated as a persistent offender. The Honorable John Spielman issued a warrant for Skelton’s arrest and he is being held in the Dunklin County Jail on a $750,000 cash only bond.
Jain cautions that the charges are merely allegations and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.