East Cape Girardeau resident shares account on incident in East Cape, heard gunshots
EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. (KBSI) – East Cape Girardeau resident Zach Baltzell was letting out his dog, Ellie, late Wednesday night when he heard gunshots coming from a field near his home.
“When I was a kid, I got one of those 10,000 shot firecrackers. That’s what it sounded like,” he said.
This was the end of a police chase that took officers from Cape Girardeau across the Bill Emerson Bridge and into East Cape where the suspect, Donald Friese, drove his pickup truck into a field then got stuck.
“Our officers maintained perimeter of that vehicle and attempted to negotiate with the individual to step out of the vehicle,” Cape Girardeau Police Department Public Information Officer Bobby Newton said.
Friese refused to comply then showed a gun, and multiple officers fired shots into the truck and struck Friese, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Baltzell has lived in East Cape for 33 years, and he says he has never witnessed anything like this.
“You don’t see that too often around here, like people running from the cops. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere, I mean, it’s crazy,” he said.
Related story: Police chase over Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge ends in shootout
