A Jefferson City man has pleaded guilty to an amended charge in a weapons incident that occurred in September 2021.
During a hearing before Cole County Judge Dan Green, Brenden Jackson, 28, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor second-degree harassment. Prosecutors amended the charge down from felony unlawful use of a weapon. He was placed on two years of unsupervised probation. If he fails to meet his probation guidelines, he faces a year in the Cole County Jail.
A Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement states the department's 911 Center received several calls about a man, later identified as Jackson, with a gun walking north in the 500 block of Monroe Street toward the police department. The callers said Jackson was pointing the handgun toward the ground.
Due to the calls, the Jefferson City Academic Center, which is in the general area, was locked down. There were 75 students at the center at the time of the lockdown.
Jackson was located by JCPD officers at the intersection of East High and Jefferson streets. They reported Jackson was in possession of a 9mm handgun with a magazine containing 14 rounds of ammunition.
Authorities interviewed several witnesses, including one who told officers they saw Jackson with his finger on the trigger of the gun, and they were afraid he was getting ready to shoot. This witness also saw Jackson arguing on his cellphone as he was holding the gun.
When questioned by authorities, Jackson said he'd found the gun a couple of days earlier in a vacant parking lot and decided to keep it for protection. He also said he never fired the weapon, but did know about the ammunition it contained. Jackson denied he had any criminal intent to hurt or injure someone with the gun.