Superintendent speaks out after graduation ceremony was cut short

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – A father and son both from Cape Girardeau were arrested in connection to the shooting incident that took place at the Show Me Center on Sunday, May 20, 2024.

Kris Owens, age 20 and Christopher Owens, age 41 face multiple charges including unlawful use of a weapon.

Christopher faces charges of loitering within 500 feet of school property as a registered sex offender.

Both are being held in the cape county jail.  

Students saying its hard to get past the memory of Sunday’s graduation interrupted by gunfire.

“A great margin of us knew it was a gunshot which I didn’t really put in my mind together at the moment and as soon as that happened everyone looked behind and people were running through chairs.” says Evan Kurtz one of the students who was supposed to graduate on Sunday.

Evan Kurtz was one of more than 300 students that was supposed to graduate on Sunday.

Evan says he feels like he was robbed of his graduation experience. 

“I’m a little aggravated because I was all nervous and hyped at the same time because of walking on stage and everything but it won’t feel the same when it gets rescheduled. It’ll just be like…be like a second time.” 

Ceremonies were cut drastically short after shots were fired just before Cape Centrals high school graduation ceremony.

According to the victim’s family the man who was hit by the gunfire is in his 30’s and was shot in the abdomen, backlash over an on-going feud. 
Sources close to the family say it all came to a head near the concession stand Sunday. 

Monday superintendent Dr. Howard Benyon spoke out about what happened and his message for parents and students:

“These are resilient kids. These are the kids that started in COVID and it breaks my heart that it happened at the show me center during the students graduation. This should be time for celebration so what I tell them is they are resilient and they’re going to survive this. They are going to have an opportunity to celebrate their graduation.” 

Families say they are still in shock. Misty Nordin and her family were there to see her nephew Lucian graduate a beautiful day she says was shattered.

“At first I was just shocked because I just didn’t think about it but after it set in I was just scared because me and my husband ran out but he ran back in because his family was in there and then Lucian was on the floor and then I just couldn’t imagine for the parents that actually had the kids on the floor because you didn’t know if it was a shooting, shooting or if it was just two people fighting but when you first think about it its like ok this is one of them things you see on tv this is actually a shooting, shooting”  says Nordin. 

Cape Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Benyon said that a new graduation date has not been set at this time but there will be one.

School has been canceled for Tuesday but will continue on Wednesday for the last half day of the school year.