Nine officers fall as deck collapses during Missouri arrest

Seven officers hospitalized with broken bones, U.S. marshal says

The video shows the deck collapsing on July 21 as the officers, several holding firearms, stand in a line just outside an apartment door in Huntsville, Missouri. The officers fall straight down within seconds. None of their weapons discharged.

Seven officers were treated and released from the hospital for injuries “consistent with a pretty serious fall,” including broken bones, Steven Lewis, U.S. marshal for the eastern district of Missouri, told KMIZ television in Columbia, Missouri.

The operation was carried out by a multi-agency task force that included members of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, the Moberly Police Department, and the North Missouri Drug Task Force, serving an arrest warrant in coordination with the U.S. Marshals Service, the sheriff’s department said.

The man officers were seeking was taken into custody later that day, U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Abigail Meyer said in an email Wednesday.