OFFICER RECALLS LESSONS OF METH-PROVOKED GUNFIGHT

It's been three years since Cape Girardeau police Cpl. Keith May and his
partner, Sgt. Brad Moore, were shot at the Super 8 Motel taking down a meth
lab.

May recounted the details of that night for criminal justice students and
students of the police academy at Southeast Missouri State University
Tuesday evening.

"I think especially the new officers need to know how fast things can get
bad," May said after his presentation. "It helps me too, to be able to talk
about it."

Although it's painful for May to go through the events of the incident, he
acknowledges that "it will probably always be hard."

The incident on Feb. 10, 2001, started off as a routine follow-up to a tip
narcotics officers provided that some kind of drug activity was going on in
room 120 at the Super 8 on North Kingshighway. May and Moore didn't know
what to expect when they arrived. Once at the threshold of the room, they
realized it was a meth lab after getting a whiff of ether.

The occupants of the room, Matthew Marsh and Jenna McDaniel, were
uncooperative. Marsh gave the officers a phony name and refused to let them
search the room. Then Marsh, who was lying on one of the beds in the room,
reached under a pillow, drew out a gun and fired two shots: one hit May in
the abdomen, the other hit Moore in the shoulder.

May said he remembers firing at Marsh but thinking none of his bullets
reached their target. May fired at Marsh after Marsh shot him; Marsh spun
around after that and fired at Moore. May fired at Marsh several times,
hitting him four or five times, but not realizing it.

"He continued to function," May said. "It's not like TV."

Thinking he was not hitting Marsh, May aimed for Marsh's face and fired the
fatal shot. Not realizing Marsh was down, Moore also returned fire.
Nineteen rounds were fired.

"All this seems like slow motion, but it was over in a heartbeat," May said.

May underwent surgery for his wounds and returned to duty in June that
year. In October 2001, he had to have more surgery and was out two more
months. He has been back on duty ever since.

"I was ready to go back," he said. "I can't explain it."

Police Lt. Roger Fields offered his own explanation.

"We have a hero among us," Fields said. "Keith stepped up to the plate
serving his community. They tell you to get back on the horse after you've
fallen off. It's not that easy. He has done it and is quite a man for doing
that."

May told the group that it's important for them to hear his story and train
for this type of situation.

"Train to be a survivor," he said.

Moore is also back on duty and has been for about a year, May said. Moore's
injuries were more severe and still cause him some pain. The two work
together in the same platoon.

Sava Savage of Chaffee, Mo., a student in the police academy, said she
learned more from listening to May than she would have from hearing a
lecture from her instructor.

"He has actual evidence, and I could hear the emotion in him," Savage said.
"He has been through it."

"It's reality," said Cindy Richards of Cape Girardeau, also a student in
the police academy. "When you're out there working, you have to be prepared
and be thinking of situations that could possibly happen to you. You have
to train to survive."