Monday, February 14, 2011

Central States News: St. Louis Police Chase Costs Life- Taxpayers $700K

A police pursuit of a burglar resulted in a crash and the death of a civilian 4 years ago in St. Louis.


The burglar- who was apprehended after the crash- is doing prison time.

The cops involved in the chase got reprimands- a suspension and refresher courses on pursuits.


The widow of the man who was killed in the pursuit has her memories- and $700000 in cash from the police department involved and the State of Missouri- according to the ST. LOUIS (MO) POST DISPATCH story.
____________

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember way back in the early 80’s there was a police pursuit for a subject that had done a rolling stop not a complete stop at a sign stop. Now mind you rolling through a stop sign is against the law and should be enforced. Weird part is the officer involved saw it happen and hit the reds and the suspect hit the gas. Now this is all going down at app 03:00 on a weekday morning. Want to point out here that the officer in question knew who the subject was. It was later brought out he had pulled subject over no less than four other times in a fifteen month period. The officer in attempting to hurry up at a high rate of speed to catch subject missed a lazy s curve in the road and plowed a two week old patrol car off the road and into a small creek.

Ripped the whole front end out from under the car, poked a hole in the engine oil pan, and as well ripped the oil pan off the transmission. While waiting for backup he left engine idling since it was a cold night so he could stay warm that is till motor locked up. Transmission as well was trashed.

Within an hour the suspect was in custody since all knew where he lived.

Suspect when asked why he ran claims the local police such fanatics on DUI’s he was afraid he get arrested for it since he had drank one beer four hours earlier and been pulled over before for possible DUI. Suspect was taken to local hospital and blood drawn and came back later as negative.

The state highway patrol was called in to investigate the officer’s accident since an outside agency as a rule investigates another law enforcement involved accident. Upon hearing subject’s side of story ordered the blood test.

The subject walked on all charges, lawyer proved harassment. The city taxpayers there had to pay for the patrol car repairs, the property damage, since the insurance company refused to pay due to negligence. The suspect’s attorney as well was paid by the city.

One week or so later I bumped into the trooper who was the lead investigator on the accident and asked him what the world was the deal rumor mill was running rampant. Being the professional he was all he would say is, “That whole incident is a true story of one fool chasing another fool.”

Seldom is a pursuit ever worth the risk. Time and time again the John Wayne syndrome takes over an officers thinking and he becomes a fool.

Groucho K. Marx said...

I'm not at all surprised/shocked in regard to your story superdave...

Without going into detail- I was almost run-over by a Lenexa cop in the early 1980's during a police pursuit that I KNEW was coming!

In addition- I caught the Raytown Police in a bald-faced lie regarding a chase involving the death of an uninvolved citizen on Blue Parkway circa 1990.

I hear chases involved a "possibly intoxicated driver" more than you could know in my 20+ years in the news business- and some of them have been recently.

How much intelligence is involved in chasing a drunk driver who will not stop for police is my enduring question....


Have a safe day-
"Groucho"

Tornado Strikes Monroe LA With Confirmed Injuries

The tornado struck around noon on Easter Sunday. There is considerable damage repo rted in that northeastern Louisiana city of around 5000...