FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. — A truck driver has been charged after police say he shot another driver Tuesday on Interstate 44 in Franklin County.
Vernon Wayne Crutcher of Winder, Georgia, was charged Wednesday with one count each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
A probable cause statement filed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol detailed the chain of events that led up to the shooting.
According to documents, MSHP was called to the shooting shortly before noon on I-44, west of Route H in Sullivan. Crutcher had been arrested at the scene by Sullivan police and the victim was taken to a St. Louis hospital with a gunshot to his abdomen.
Two witnesses told authorities that Crutcher and the victim parked their tractor-trailers on the shoulder of eastbound I-44, with the victim's truck parked in front of Crutcher's truck. Witnesses saw Crutcher get out and approach the other truck on the passenger side, and the two began speaking to each other in the grass right-of-way. They then saw Crutcher pull out a handgun and shoot the other man, documents said.
As the man was running away, witnesses said Crutcher shot at him a second time before they both returned to their trucks.
Police spoke to the victim at the hospital. He said that prior to the pair pulling over, they had been arguing over CB radio. He said Crutcher was driving aggressively near him, so he pulled over, and Crutcher pulled over too.
He told police he saw Crutcher walking up to his truck and he got out to meet Crutcher. When the victim tried to speak to him, Crutcher pulled out a gun, "unexpectedly" pointed it at him and shot him from about 6 feet away, he said.
The man said the altercation had only been verbal until that point. After he was shot, the man ran back to the driver's side of his truck and watched Crutcher return to his own truck. He said he then walked up to Crutcher's truck in an attempt to take photos with his phone, but Crutcher got out with his gun again and the victim returned to his truck.
The two both remained in their own trucks until police arrived.
Crutcher said during a police interview that he had been in a roadway dispute before pulling over but hadn't spoken to the other man over CB radio.
Crutcher claimed he shot in self-defense after the other man "bowed up" during the argument on the side of the highway and swung a knife at him, documents said. He claimed two superficial cuts on the outside of his left hand, "approximately one inch long and right next to each other, with minimal blood exposed," were defense wounds.
Surveillance video from a local business corroborated the victim's statements and showed the two were never close enough to each other to engage in a physical altercation.
"After confronting Crutcher with evidence and witness accounts that contradicted his account of the incident, he became upset and requested legal representation," the probable cause statement said.
Crutcher was being held without bond at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. A docket hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
