Boone County prosecutors have charged a Columbia man with first degree murder for Friday night’s shooting death of his ex-girlfriend on Typhoon court.
27-year-old John Williamson III of Columbia is also charged with armed criminal action and with unlawful use of a weapon for the death of 27-year-old Azairah Brownlee, who was shot in the neck. Court documents say Williamson is the ex-boyfriend and that the incident started with Williamson banging on the driver’s window of the victim’s car and then getting into the truck’s bed.
The Columbia Police Department’s heavily-redacted four-page probable cause statement says Williamson and his ex-girlfriend then began fighting and that Brownlee was shot once. The court documents also allege that Williamson struck Brownlee in the head with a handgun in January and then punched her in the head with a closed fist about 20 times.
The court documents also allege that Williamson called the victim dozens of times in the hours leading up to the murder, and that Williamson restricted some of those calls to conceal who was calling.
Williamson is jailed without bond. He’s currently not listed on the Boone County jail roster.
