Arrest made in Missouri officer’s slaying

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man charged with killing a western Missouri police officer during a traffic stop was arrested Tuesday evening, authorities announced.

Missouri Highway Patrol dispatchers said Ian McCarthy, 39, was taken into custody in Henry County, which includes the city of Clinton. McCarthy is charged with first- degree murder in the death of Clinton police officer Gary Michael on Sunday night.

About 100 local, county and state law enforcement officers had been searching for McCarthy since the shooting. Investigators believe that McCarthy shot Michael, 37, before driving a short distance, crashing his vehicle and fleeing on foot.

Authorities earlier Tuesday converged on a home in Chilhowee, Mo., about 25 miles northwest of Clinton, after receiving a tip that McCarthy might have been hiding there. But Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said that search proved fruitless.

McCarthy is also wanted in New Hampshire, where a warrant was issued in 2013 when he failed to show up for sentencing on a disorderlyconduct charge, according to court records in that state. He served about four years in prison there for first- degree assault and a parole violation. He is also wanted in Johnson County, Mo., on a 2015 warrant over unlawful possession of a firearm.

It’s possible that those warrants prompted McCarthy to shoot Michael to avoid arrest, Lowe said.

Moments before Michael was shot, a man identified as McCarthy was seen on surveillance video entering a Clinton convenience store and buying cigar wrappers, according to a probable cause affidavit by Sgt. Greg Martin, an investigator with the Highway Patrol.

The footage later shows McCarthy driving away in a Dodge Nitro before a Clinton officer in an SUV activates his lights to pull over McCarthy, according to the affidavit. Michael gave a dispatcher a description of the Nitro — registered to McCarthy — before the officer was shot, the affidavit says.