Police arrest two following domestic disturbance

BONNE TERRE — A man and woman are in custody after causing a disturbance on a Bonne Terre street Wednesday night.

Chief Doug Calvert said Officer Alex Shibley and Cpl. Ben Adams were dispatched to a report of an intoxicated female arguing with her estranged husband on Jackson Street at about 10:30 p.m. The woman was accompanied by another man.

The man’s brother called police and reported the woman was threatening him with a firearm.

Police arrested the woman inside the residence. They then went to a residence on North B where they were told the man who had accompanied the woman had gone. He wasn’t at that residence, but they found him at another residence on North B. He was placed under arrest.

Calvert said the gun that was believed to have been displayed was found in the room where he was located. The owner told police the man did not have permission to have the gun.

Calvert said the woman confessed to her role in the incident, but the man who was with her denied involvement.

The woman told police she had been drinking all day. She said she put a gun in a purse and walked to the house on Jackson Street to scare her ex-husband.

Calvert said she admitted to pointing the gun at the man and pulling the trigger twice. She said the man with her told her the gun wasn’t loaded, but she didn’t check it to make sure.

The chief said the gun was either unloaded or didn’t fire.

Calvert said the department will be asking the prosecutor’s office to filed charges of first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon against both. He said the man who was arrested was on probation or parole.

He said they are in the county jail on a $235,000 bond.

Bonne Terre police officers were kept busy the rest of the night with a woman who was found dead at Red Cedar Lodge.

Calvert said police, firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched to the motel before 2 a.m. for an unresponsive female.

He said a neighbor had been concerned about the woman and got motel staff to unlock the door. The neighbor and ambulance staff tried to resuscitate her, but she was already dead.

He said a syringe with an unknown substance was found in her room. He said at this time it looks like a drug overdose but an autopsy will be performed.