In the pre-dawn hours of a late September morning, a chain of events began to unfold that would end in tragedy for 23-year-old Donna M. Bailey. It started shortly before 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2022, when an Ozark Police officer attempted to pull over a vehicle near the interchange of Highway 65 and Highway 14. The officer suspected the driver, later identified as 37-year-old Timothy W. Shafer, of being impaired. However, the car did not stop and instead fled south.
The Ozark officer did not give chase but alerted the Christian County Sheriff's Office about the suspected impaired driver.
About half an hour later, a Christian County Sheriff's deputy spotted the vehicle in the Highlandville area and again attempted a traffic stop. Once more, the driver refused to comply and a pursuit was initiated. The chase that followed involved officers from the Christian County Sheriff's Office, as well as the Nixa and Ozark Police Departments, as they worked to apprehend the fleeing vehicle. The pursuit came to an end near the interchange of Highway 65 and CC, in the vicinity of Fremont Hills, where law enforcement was finally able to stop the car.
The final moments of the encounter were tense and escalated quickly. According to reports from law enforcement, both Shafer and his passenger, Donna Bailey, did not respond to officers' commands. It was then that Shafer allegedly brandished a firearm. In response to this perceived threat, multiple officers from the different departments on the scene opened fire on the vehicle. Both Timothy Shafer and Donna Bailey were struck by the gunfire and were pronounced dead at the scene.
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, it was revealed that Shafer had a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2009 and had outstanding warrants for drugs and felony stealing. The investigation into the officer-involved shooting was turned over to the Greene County Sheriff's Office as part of the regional Sheriff's Critical Incident Team, which also includes Christian, Lawrence, and Webster counties. The five officers involved in the shooting, two from the Christian County Sheriff's Office, two from the Ozark Police Department, and one from the Nixa Police Department, were placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, a standard procedure in such cases.
