ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — A man involved in a car crash pointed a gun at a paramedic responding to the scene, fired a shot, and was found dead in his vehicle after police arrived.
Paramedics from St. Charles County Ambulance District were dispatched Sunday around 7:45 p.m. to a motor vehicle crash on Highway 61, according to a press release from the service.
Battalion Chief Jeremy Hollrah was in the area of the crash and the first responder on the scene. He saw several vehicles pulled to the side of the road, and a black pickup truck off the roadway, resting at an odd angle on the edge of a wooded area alongside the road.
Witnesses told Hollrah the driver of the truck had exited the vehicle. As Hollrah approached the driver got back into his truck, and appeared to searching for something. Hollrah asked him several times to exit the vehicle; the driver did not comply, then pointed a gun at the paramedic. Hollrah backed away and the driver fired a shot.
Unsure who the shot had been fired at, Hollrah and other paramedics and firefighters who had arrived on the scene and were treating other patients involved in the accident ushered the patients and bystanders to safety behind parked vehicles.
Wentzville police arrived shortly after, and discovered the man in the truck died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“The circumstances surrounding this incident bring a stark reality into focus – the fact that even the most seemingly routine of calls have the potential to become dangerous for emergency responders, said St. Charles County Ambulance District Chief Taz Meyer, “We’re thankful that our Battalion Chief, paramedics and [fire and law enforcement] colleagues on-scene were not harmed in this tragic incident, and applaud their actions in getting patients and bystanders to safety.”