A jury trial is scheduled to begin this week in the case of a man charged in the August 2024 shooting inside Buffalo Wild Wings on Columbia’s East Nifong.
Boone County prosecutors have charged 38-year-old Alexis Gonzalez with first degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. 939 the Eagle News was in Boone County Circuit Court last week, when Prosecutor Roger Johnson and defense attorney Jeffery Hilbrenner told Judge Stephanie Morrell that they are ready for trial.
While online court records say Gonzalez is from Columbia, the Boone County jail roster lists his address as Orlando, Florida.
Court documents allege that Gonzalez allegedly “shot a man in the face over an unpaid bar tab while intoxicated” at Buffalo Wild Wings. The Columbia Police Department’s three-page probable cause statement from 2024 says Gonzalez says the man had hit his girlfriend. The court documents said that the suspect allegedly pointed a gun at a woman’s head before the shooting and said “You saw what happened, he hit my girlfriend, I am going to kill that MF, don’t you lie.” It’s unclear if the shooting victim, who survived but suffered a serious eye injury, was a Buffalo Wild Wings employee or a customer.
Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson and assistant prosecutor Melissa Knerr are handling the prosecution. Jeffery Hilbrenner is the defense attorney in the case.