An 18-year-old Fayette man is being held without bond in the Howard County Jail after police say he fired a handgun through an interior wall of a home early Monday morning, August 31, 2026, sending two 9mm rounds into a room where his intended target was hiding and a 15-year-old child was present. Eric Dewayne Jackson Jr. now faces charges including armed criminal action, felony child endangerment, unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful discharge of a firearm following the incident on North Vine Street.
According to a Fayette Police Department probable cause statement cited by KMZU.com, officers responded to the residence just before 2 a.m. Monday. The reporting party was hiding inside a closet at the time officers arrived, and Jackson had allegedly threatened to kill a housemate before the shooting began, per the same probable cause statement.
The statement also describes what officers heard as they approached the home: a woman inside pleading with someone not to shoot. When Jackson allegedly replied, “I have to,” an officer forced entry through the door, according to the probable cause statement obtained by The Fayette Advertiser. Police ultimately got inside the home and convinced Jackson to drop the handgun.
What Officers Found Inside the Home
Investigators recovered a Glock 43X handgun from Jackson, loaded with four hollow-point rounds and two jacketed rounds in the magazine, The Fayette Advertiser reports. Two spent 9mm shell casings were found near where he had been standing, and the home itself bore two bullet holes from the rounds that passed through the interior wall.
Jackson now faces one count of armed criminal action, one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon, one count of unlawful discharge of a firearm, and three misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault, according to KMZU.com. He was ordered held without bond and is scheduled for initial arraignment before Judge Mason Gebhardt in Howard County Court on Thursday at 9 a.m.
What Missouri's Armed Criminal Action Charge Means for Jackson
The armed criminal action count carries particularly severe consequences under Missouri law. Under Missouri Revised Statutes Section 571.015, the charge is an unclassified felony with a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison, with no eligibility for probation or parole during the first three years, and any sentence must run consecutively to whatever time is imposed on the underlying felony. Prosecutors in Missouri frequently pair unlawful-use-of-a-weapon charges with armed criminal action enhancements in cases where a firearm is discharged inside an occupied building or near other people, according to the law firm Combs Waterkotte.
If convicted on every pending count, Jackson faces up to 15 years in prison for armed criminal action, up to seven years for felony child endangerment, up to four years for each felony unlawful weapon use count, and up to one year in jail for each misdemeanor count, per The Fayette Advertiser's reporting.
A Small Community Grappling With a Violent Night
The shooting struck a small-town community still not far removed from debating who leads its police force. Fayette, the county seat of Howard County, had an estimated population of roughly 2,800 residents in 2024, according to USAFacts, while Howard County as a whole counted 10,151 residents in the 2020 U.S. Census. Last November, Fayette voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have replaced the elected City Marshal position with an appointed Police Chief, opting instead to keep direct voter oversight of the department's top leadership, The Fayette Advertiser reported at the time.
The case is now headed toward arraignment, with prosecutors weighing the full weight of the charges against an 18-year-old defendant in a county where violent gunfire inside a home is rare enough to draw the attention of the entire community.
