Fort Scott Police investigating domestic dispute

Fort Scott police officers made an arrest early Wednesday following a domestic incident allegedly involving a handgun.

Fort Scott Police Department Capt. Shaun West said officers responded just after midnight Wednesday to a residence in the 1800 block of East Wall Street following a report of a domestic incident.

West said police took 29-year-old Joseph Anderson Berkey, Jr., into custody for aggravated battery in a domestic situation that allegedly involved a 9-mm handgun. He said police collected the handgun, ammunition, a kitchen knife and other evidence at the scene.

West said FSPD detectives were then called in and a search warrant for the residence was requested and granted. Later Wednesday, officers completed a search of the residence based on the warrant. The house was cordoned off with yellow caution tape while police conducted the investigation.

The reporting party called in the incident as a domestic situation in which both subjects involved had weapons. The report also said the suspect arrested had shot a female involved in the altercation in the leg. She was transported from the scene to Mercy Hospital for treatment of “one or more” gunshot wounds to the leg, West said.

The condition of the female involved in the incident was not available.

According to the official arrest report, Berkey, Jr., was arrested at 1:37 a.m. Wednesday and charged with aggravated battery; bodily harm with a deadly weapon. He was booked into the Southeast Kansas Regional Correctional Center at 2:18 a.m. and was being held on no bond.

West said there is an ongoing investigation into the incident.