Today was a rough day for our officers. Two of our officers were involved in a harrowing life threatening situation. Responding to resident complaints of open and notorious drug dealing, officers were patrolling an area known for dangerous drug trafficking. Just before 1:00 am, our officers approached a vehicle to investigate suspected drug activity. Pictured below are the illicit drugs (marijuana, Xanax bars and crack/cocaine) recovered by police. When police attempted to effectuate an arrest, the suspect initiated a struggle. Police’s attempt to use a taser to subdue the suspect was unsuccessful. The struggle continued and the suspect attempted to pull the gun pictured below on officers. Officers were required to use deadly force to neutralize the immediate threat to their lives. Shockingly, the suspect had a 7 year old child in the in the car where he peddled dangerous drugs while armed. Thankfully, the child escaped the car unharmed.

Thankfully our officers escaped the altercation with only minor injuries. In what has become an all too familiar refrain, the anti-police faction began spinning false narratives that a helpless weed possessor was murdered for no reason. Shockingly, however, the elected prosecutor Kim Gardner, tweeted an ominous threat to police. She agreed with notorious cop hater Alderwoman Megan Green that the "interaction” with the armed drug dealer dealing drugs in a car with a 7 year old girl "never should have happened.” Pre-judging an officer involved shooting and twitter threatening these brave officers is horribly unethical. Under the Rules of Professional Conduct, Gardner should recuse herself and her entire office from proceeding in any way in this case. We are consulting with legal counsel on how to address her unethical conduct in this matter.

During the course of the day, the truth has begun to emerge. The suspect was a 4 time felon, who had his probation revoked and recently was released from serving 9 years in prison. What is stunning is that the assistant circuit attorney who prosecuted the cases against this suspect from 2009 to 2011 was none other than Assistant Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. Of course, she is intimately familiar with the suspect’s career in crime. That makes her public twitter threat against police and her position that the suspect should have been left alone to deal dangerous drugs while are armed right next to a 7 year old child even more unconscionable.

This blatant dereliction of duty and unethical threat by this "prosecutor” is nothing short of alarming. Nonetheless, the Mayor, the Director of Public Safety and the Chief of Police have stood silent while Gardner abdicates her duty, promotes a false narrative regarding this incident and publicly threatens officers. Their silence is deafening and it is having profound negative impact on the police force they expect to protect our City’s citizens. On Tuesday, the Mayor spoke about her support for Police at the Police Foundation luncheon. By Thursday, she was standing idly by while her police officers were lied about and threatened for doing their job.

This situation is completely untenable. When elected and appointed officials promote the systematic demoralizing of this City’s Police force, the detrimental effect on the citizens of St.Louis and our police officers is incalculable. We will not stop holding these people accountable. We will not stand idly by and let them continue to dismantle the safety and security of our City and its people.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at September 06, 2019 09:26 AM (1xXOY)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at September 07, 2019 06:54 AM (gEjPp)

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