Suspect identified after homicide in Sikeston
SIKESTON, Mo. (KBSI) – One person is dead, and another was arrested Monday in Sikeston.
During the morning of Monday, September 11, Sikeston Department of Public Safety officers responded to the 1500 block of Washington in Sikeston for a report of an assault where one person was suspected to be injured.
Sikeston Department of Public Safety officers say they responded to a report of an assault Monday, where they found 66-year-old, Curtis McKinney inside his home suffering from serious injuries.
His 17-year-old granddaughter, Jelyric Hunt was the first to find him after the alleged assault. Hunt describes the scene saying, “As soon as you walk in, I see everything, blood everywhere, glass broke.”
Anthony Pearson was identified as a suspect and arrested.
Pearson had reportedly been beating on the doors of a neighboring home, where his cousin Leanna Williamson was sleeping and says she woke up with her heart racing to the sound, “He was like, ‘He just ran down the street, if that’s who y’all looking for. They said his name was Anthony Pearson, I went back home, and I was like ‘Mama, do we know an Anthony Pearson?’ she was like ‘Yeah that’s your cousin’ and I was like ‘Okay.’ so I ran back to the officers and said, ‘that’s my cousin but I don’t know what he’s up to.”
Mckinney’s son in law, Michael Barnhill followed McKinney’s granddaughter inside, and began CPR on his father-in-law, saying, “They (Police) are outside, and the suspect is sitting on the ground, and they’re talking to him and one of my cousins was like ‘Mike, Mr. Curtis in the house. It was chairs, there was a chair on top of him, broken glass, I just threw all that stuff out the way and you know my first thought was I got to check, so I checked him for a pulse.”
McKinney was taken to a local hospital for treatment and later pronounced dead.
After Pearson was taken into custody, the Sikeston Department of Public Safety launched a homicide investigation.
Now McKinney’s family is seeking justice.
Barnhill says, “I’m not angry, I’m more hurt and depressed more than anything.”
Pearson faces charges of murder and burglary in the 1st degree, and armed criminal action, he is being held without bond.
