Police investigating death of man with gunshot wounds as homicide

Springfield police are investigating the death of a man with gunshot wounds as a homicide.

Shortly after 5 a.m. Monday, police responded to Mercy Springfield in reference to 33-year-old Matthew Wade Cline, according to a news release from police. Cline later died of his injuries. He had been transported to Mercy by a man who left after dropping him at the emergency room.

Cline's residence at 309 E. Cherokee St. is being treated as a crime scene, police said. Police discovered gunshots at two nearby addresses, 302 and 234 E. Cherokee. Cline lived on the north side of the street; the other two homes face his home from across the street, on the south side.

At the scene, Lt. Culley Wilson said police do not believe this was a random shooting; authorities believe the victim and his attacker or attackers knew each other. They expected the road to be blocked off for five to six hours as the scene was investigated.

About 4:15 p.m., crime scene investigators were in front of the house taking photos and looking for evidence.

Police in a news release said they are interviewing any possibly involved subjects and did not release any further details.

Cline had been released from the Missouri Department of Corrections in January after serving about four months on a probation violation from a drug distribution charge out of Dallas County, according to a prison spokesman.

According to court records, the revocation of his probation was triggered by a July 4 arrest in Greene County, after he left the scene of a rollover crash and had drug paraphernalia in his possession.

According to the probable cause statement in that case, Highway Patrol troopers were sent to the site of a crash on Route CC in southern Greene County. Police found a Mazda RX-7 in the ditch, and witnesses at the scene said the driver had left on foot through the woods.

Police found Cline, who matched the witnesses' description, at a nearby house, records show. Cline said he was a passenger in the vehicle and was taken to a local hospital for a broken hand.

Cline pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia last week and was given two years' unsupervised probation.

News-Leader staffers Dean Curtis and Stephen Herzog contributed to this report.