Vigil set for tonight after Columbia Public School employee killed in East Tennessee shooting

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Rock Bridge High School community will be hosting a vigil Monday night at the Rock Bridge High School Stadium from 7 to 8 pm to honor Michael Monroe Woods, Jr. of Columbia, an RBHS home school communicator.

Woods was a home school communicator at Rock Bridge High School.

“Mr. Woods was a friend to us all. He could always be counted on as a confidant, a problem-solver, a “kids first” guy,” said Rock Bridge Principal Jacob Sirna. “His laugh would light up a room, and the many things he did to support Bruins and their families were often the foundation of what made students show up to school and be successful.”

According to a release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, around 6 pm on Friday, emergency personnel found 55-year-old Woods Jr. dead in the bathroom of the I-24 eastbound rest area near mile marker 160.

Investigators identified his son, 30-year-old Micah McElmurry of Decatur, Ill. as the individual responsible for the shooting.

McElmurry, has been charged with shooting his father, Woods Jr. inside a rest area off the interstate.