Second Callaway County deputy leaves hospital after officer involved shooting

A Callaway County deputy was home safe Tuesday after he was injured during an officer-involved shooting earlier this month on Interstate 70.

Law enforcement officers and first responders from the Callaway and Boone County areas honored Deputy Gardner Pottorff as he left Columbia’s University Hospital.

Pottorff is recovering from four gunshots to the stomach.

Thirty-seven-year-old Jonathan Beason of Medina, Texas, opened fire on Porttorff and Corporal Justin Bax during a traffic stop, west of the Kingdom City exit.

Beason died at the scene.

Bax was released from the hospital earlier this month and was undergoing physical therapy at home for gunshot wounds in his upper right arm.

"Emotionally, this has been a little bit tough for us," said Callaway County Sheriff Spokesperson Crystal Kent.

"We never want anyone to get hurt in our line of work, although we know it is a possibility. We always hope it never happens, right? Overall, I think the best word I could use for us is overwhelmed.”

The families of both deputies are working with the Chief Mason Griffith Foundation to raise money for the wounded deputies.

All of the donations, except for standard credit card fees, go to the deputies and their families.