Donald Wilson, 51, was killed on the night of February 28, 2015, in the Columbia, Missouri area when gunfire erupted inside a duplex on Santa Anna Drive, a short distance off Route WW. Deputies responding to multiple reports of shots found a chaotic scene: Wilson and his sister, Deborah Koontz, were dead at the residence, and another resident, Willie Mays, had been shot in the head and rushed to a hospital in critical condition.
Investigators said everyone at the center of the violence lived at the home, including the suspected shooter, Cornelius “C.J.” Parker. Witness information and 911 calls pointed deputies toward a white sedan leaving the area, and patrol units quickly picked it up as it headed toward Columbia. The pursuit ended when the car lost control while turning onto southbound U.S. 63 near Broadway. Parker got out with a handgun and opened fire on a deputy; the deputy returned fire, killing Parker at the scene. The deputy was not injured.
Because the suspected gunman died during the confrontation with law enforcement, there were no arrests or prosecutions in Wilson’s case, and no trial to lay out a motive in open court. Early reporting indicated investigators did not have a known motive at the time, and the case effectively closed with Parker’s death, even as detectives worked to document what happened inside the home and along the chase route.
In the weeks that followed, the investigation split along standard lines: the Boone County Sheriff’s Department handled the original shooting at the duplex, while the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the deputy-involved shooting that ended the pursuit. By May 2015, reports indicated the Highway Patrol had gathered additional information and expected to forward its case file, including the medical examiner’s findings, to the Boone County prosecutor’s office.
The violence continued to echo well beyond that single night. Willie Mays initially survived but remained in grave condition and spent months recuperating; he was later found unresponsive and pronounced dead at University Hospital in June 2015. Authorities continued to describe Parker as the suspected shooter in the Santa Anna Drive attack that took Wilson’s life, leaving the final toll tied to the incident at three victims dead, with the suspect also dead and no one left to charge.
