Clinton Police Officer Killed: 3rd Man Charged

CLINTON, MO — A third arrest has been made in the Aug. 6 killing of Clinton police officer Gary Michael Jr., who was shot during a traffic stop.

Jacob Johnson, 27, of Clinton, was arrested Tuesday on a hindering charge after telling an informant that he dropped the suspected killer off at a marina after the shooting, according to court documents. Johnson was jailed Wednesday on a $25,000 cash bond. Online court records don't list an attorney for him.

Investigators say Ian McCarthy, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting, drove away and crashed a few blocks from the scene in Clinton, a community of about 9,000 residents about 75 miles southeast of Kansas City. McCarthy fled on foot and was captured two days later in a manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Michael was able to fire. A Missouri State Highway Patrol sergeant wrote in a probable cause statement that Johnson told an informant Aug. 7 that McCarthy was shot in the "butt" and had left town. Johnson also told the person "the less we know the better," the statement said.

Authorities interviewed Johnson a day later and he denied seeing or having contact with McCarthy after the killing, the probable cause statement said. He also denied that McCarthy owned a gun.

A second informant told authorities that Johnson was surprised Aug. 9 when told that McCarthy had been arrested in Urich, west of Clinton. McCarthy, who is from Clinton, actually was captured while walking along a state highway near a marina in Bucksaw, just east of Clinton.

According to that informant, Johnson said, "How did he walk from Bucksaw, that's not where I dropped him off?" Another person, whose name was marked out in the court document, loaned Johnson a vehicle to take McCarthy to the marina, according to the probable cause statement.

The sergeant wrote in the statement that Johnson was interviewed again on Aug. 9 and admitted that he saw McCarthy with an AR 15 rifle about two months earlier.

A third person, 35-year-old William Grant Noble, also of Clinton, is charged with supplying the weapon used to kill Michael.

The patrol, which announced Johnson's arrest in a tweet Tuesday, said in the posting that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Update: 3rd arrest. Jacob Johnson, of Clinton, has been charged with hindering prosecution of a felony by Henry CO PA Richard Shields.
— MSHP Troop A (@MSHPTrooperA) August 15, 2017

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press

Photo credit: Henry County Sheriff's Department via AP; Missouri State Highway Patrol via AP)