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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Investigators believe a man killed by police inside a University of Missouri parking garage was a violent sex offender who hours earlier hid inside a woman's car at a supermarket and tried to force her at gunpoint to drive away.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Hunter told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the man killed has been positively identified as Mark Adair after an autopsy. Columbia police said previously that they thought Adair was the person killed.
Adair was on parole from a 30-year sentence for multiple violent crimes including rape and burglary, the Columbia Missourian reported.
A campus police officer cornered the man on the second floor of the parking garage and shots were fired after an altercation between the two late Wednesday night, Columbia police deputy chief Jill Schlude said.
More shots were fired after a Columbia police officer arrived, Schlude said at a news conference early Thursday morning.
It's unknown which officer fired the fatal shot or whether Adair fired a gun in his possession. The campus police officer — who was wearing a body camera — was taken to University Hospital for a wounded finger.
Columbia police issued a warning late Wednesday afternoon about an armed man after he tried to kidnap a woman from a grocery store parking lot at 5:30 p.m. The man fled after the woman struggled with him and managed to escape, police said, sparking a manhunt that led to the University of Missouri campus.
Schlude said police received multiple tips that he had been seen near a local bar, where officers discovered a vehicle he was believed to have stolen earlier that evening.
Adair was wanted on a warrant for absconding parole, Columbia police said.
He was a registered sex offender in Missouri for raping and kidnapping a 9-year-old girl in 1988, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol sex offender registry.
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Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com
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