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Waylon Ray Hedrick

Age : 40

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/20/2025

Location : Furnace Creek Road

City : Potosi

County : Washington

State : Missouri

Agency : Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Missouri State Highway Patrol

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police after pursuit

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/20/2025, 40-year-old Waylon Ray Hedrick was shot and killed by a Washington County sheriff’s corporal at the end of a vehicle pursuit on Furnace Creek Road south of Potosi. Contemporary police reporting did not name Hedrick, but funeral records identify Waylon Ray Hedrick of Potosi as having died that same day at age 40. His obituary gives his birth date as 04/23/1985.
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The police encounter did not originate as a traffic stop. According to Washington County Sheriff Dwayne Reed, deputies were seeking Hedrick for questioning concerning an alleged assault of his girlfriend. Police also alleged that the vehicle Hedrick was driving had been stolen from the woman.
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A Washington County sheriff’s corporal located the vehicle and initiated a pursuit. The sheriff’s office described the shooting officer as a corporal. The pursuit eventually reached Furnace Creek Road, where Hedrick drove behind an abandoned house and stopped.
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According to the sheriff’s account, the corporal got out of his patrol vehicle, approached Hedrick’s vehicle and ordered him to get out. Police alleged that Hedrick instead attempted to drive away and struck a tree a short distance away.
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The corporal approached the crashed vehicle a second time and again ordered Hedrick to get out. Police alleged that the vehicle then became dislodged from the tree and accelerated toward the corporal. The corporal fired multiple rounds at Hedrick.
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After Hedrick was shot, his vehicle struck the corporal’s patrol vehicle and came to rest. Hedrick died at the scene from the gunshot wounds.
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The Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control assumed responsibility for the investigation rather than allowing the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to investigate its own shooting.
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Hedrick’s identity is important because the original police and news releases left him unnamed. His obituary establishes that Waylon Ray Hedrick, a lifelong Potosi-area man, died on the exact date of the police shooting. He was the father of three sons and was expecting his first grandchild. His family described his interests as motorcycles, antiquing, fishing, mushroom hunting and drawing.
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Additional historical reporting identifies Hedrick as the same Waylon Ray Hedrick who was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in 2009 following the stabbing death of James Kissell in Fredericktown. This history is directly relevant to confirming Hedrick’s identity but does not establish the circumstances or disposition of that old prosecution without the underlying court record.
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The Washington County shooting account presently rests heavily on the sheriff’s description of the final seconds. The publicly located reporting attributes the allegation that Hedrick drove directly toward the corporal to the sheriff’s office; it does not provide independent video or eyewitness evidence establishing the vehicle’s precise movement and the corporal’s position when he fired.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Washington County sheriff’s corporal who pursued and shot Waylon Hedrick has not been publicly identified.
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The officer was described by the sheriff’s office as a corporal and a six-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Because the department has not publicly named him, individual prior-shooting, lawsuit, discipline and complaint history cannot reliably be attached to a particular deputy.
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The shooting occurred under Sheriff Dwayne Reed. Missouri’s current state law-enforcement directory confirms Reed as Washington County sheriff and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 116 W. High Street in Potosi.
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The agency was involved in another fatal use of force after Hedrick’s death in which deputies responded to a disturbance involving a suicidal woman in Springtown. Police said the woman fired toward deputies during a foot pursuit; one deputy returned fire without striking her, and another responding deputy then struck her with a patrol vehicle, killing her. That death was also turned over to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.
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SOURCE LINKS :

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/officer-shoots-kills-suspect-after-pursuit-in-washington-county-missouri/
https://www.kfmo.com/news/washington-county-pursuit-ends-in-fatal-deputy-involved-shooting
https://www.mymonews.com/local-news/washington-county-sheriffs-deputy-involved-in-fatal-shooting
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/waylon-hedrick-obituary?id=59267987
https://dailyjournalonline.com/2009/12/10/hedrick-charged-with-first-degree-murder/
https://www.mymonews.com/local-news/one-dead-following-officer-involved-shooting-in-washington-county
https://data.mo.gov/api/views/pzip-wwk6/rows.pdf?accessType=DOWNLOAD