SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- City police say the man who was killed during a shootout with officers on Friday was Martin Y. Potts, 29, of Springfield. An autopsy by the Greene County medical examiner is planned in Columbia on Monday.
The shootout was outside a home at 2506 W. Grand St. Police surrounded the home late Thursday night after following footsteps in the snow from a wrecked stolen pickup several blocks away. A witness also told police that the driver had entered the home.
After getting a search warrant, and using a bullhorn to unsuccessfully get the man to come out with his hands up, detectives and the city’s Special Response Team approached the home to try to enter it. That’s when they said Potts came outside and fired at them, grazing a detective on the back of his hip. Officers returned fire and killed Potts.
A police department spokeswoman said crime scene investigators are done processing the crime scene in and around the home, and released it to its occupants.
All officers in the shootout are on administrative leave, which is customary after officers are involved in shootings. The autopsy will determine how many bullets hit Potts.
The pickup was stolen from a dealer's lot in the 3100 block of West Chestnut Expressway. Police say that business had several recent burglaries or thefts.
Online records show Potts pleaded guilty in 2007, and received a nine-year prison sentence for burglary and a concurrent seven-year sentence for unlawful use of a weapon. For the weapons conviction, a judge sentenced him as a prior and persistent offender, which means he had to serve a greater percentage of his sentence before being eligible for parole. The Missouri Department of Corrections say Potts left prison on Dec. 28, 2012, after getting credit for 212 days of county jail time before he went to prison on Nov. 8, 2007.
Online court records show Potts had a long adult criminal record. He pleaded guilty to all these crimes:
- 2002: fishing without a license (fined)
- 2003: judge issued a full order of protection against him on behalf of an adult
- 2003: third-degree assault, resisting arrest, stealing (2 years of probation)
- 2003: tampering with a motor vehicle, stealing (3-year prison sentence)
- 2003: marijuana possession (fine and probation)
- 2006: trespassing, property damage (probation)
- 2006: tampering with a motor vehicle (2-year prison sentence)
- 2007: burglary, unlawful use of a weapon (concurrent 9-year and 7-year prison sentences, with the second one to be served as a prior and persistent offender)
