Woke St. Louis DA refuses to charge armed robbery suspect

[GMDino]

He allegedly tried to carjack a marked police vehicle and pointed a gun at an officer.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10639633/Woke-St-Louis-DA-REFUSES-charge-armed-robbery-suspect-tried-CARJACK-marked-police-car.html

Quote:

• Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's office refused to file charges against a 27-year-old man who held police at gunpoint and attempted to carjack a police car 
• The 27-year-old, who was not identified by police, ran out in front of the car on Saturday while it was moving before holding the officers at gunpoint 
• Once he realized he was attempting to carjack a police car, he reportedly took off running and was apprehended a block away 
• The man has prior charges for domestic violence and and property damages 
• The DA's office reportedly is short-staffed and cannot handle the amount of casework it has, angering police who want more cases taken on 
• Gardner only employs half the amount of lawyers as her predecessor, despite crime rates being high  
  

By ALYSSA GUZMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:12 EDT, 22 March 2022 | UPDATED: 12:34 EDT, 22 March 2022

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St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (pictured) has refused to file charges against a 27-year-old suspect who pointed a gun at officers and attempted to carjack a marked police car on Saturday. Her office has not commented on the decision 

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office refused to file charges against an armed robbery suspect who tried to steal a marked police car and pointed a gun at officers on Saturday.

Police wanted to charge the 27-year-old man, who they did not identify, with first-degree robbery, armed criminal actions, and resisting arrest charges.

Police told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the man's identify hasn't been released due to the charges against the suspect being 'refused by the Circuit Attorney’s Office, making his identity a closed record.' 

The Attorney's Office did not provide a reason why they declined to charge the suspect. 

The office is headed by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who was elected on a 'woke' platform to not prosecute many misdemeanors and felonies, police have criticized her office for failing to take on more cases. She recently sued the police for racism, but the case was dismissed.

She is also currently under investigation for misconduct, according to the [url=https://nypost.com/2022/01/17/cracking-the-case-of-the-woke-prosecutor-2/]New York Post. 

Under her leadership, the office has only prosecuted 1,500 of the 7,000 felony cases in the city's police department in 2019. Numbers for her full term were not available.  

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The 27-year-old - who was not identified by police since Gardner's office decided not to charge him, making it 'closed record' -  was arrested in a nearby restaurant parking lot (pictured) after attempting to carjack two officers and holding them at gunpoint 
St. Louis' woke Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was elected for her 'progressive' platform

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner 
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was elected in 2016 for her 'progressive' platform, where she advocated to de-prosecute misdemeanors and felonies, leading to only around 1,500 of the 7,000 felony cases in the city to be prosecuted in 2019.  

In 2019, Gardner pledged more court diversion and less cash bail for low-level prosecutions. 


She pledged to move more criminals into diversion programs - probation-like scheme that helps them obtain jobs and have access to mental healthcare - to keep offender out of jail. 

'I know that a history of high arrest rates, high conviction rates and lengthy prison stays have not made our city safer,' she said at the time. 

'n fact, in many respects, the heavy-handed criminal-justice responses of the past have played a significant role in destabilizing families, neighborhoods and communities in our city.' 

In 2018, she 'summoned' 56 per cent of those with low-level felonies instead of issuing a bail. Those with criminal charges would still have to attend court or risk arrest. 

She announced this change after the city was sued for its cash bail system, NPR in St. Louis said.     

In addition, she is under review by the Missouri disciplinary board for misconduct in her role, and she has sued the police department for racism, which was dismissed, the New York Post reported in January. 

Her staff has reported not being able to attend hearings and fully prepare for cases due to being under-staffed. Recently, Gardner appointed a case to a lawyer who was out on maternity leave and failed to assign the case to another employee, leading the homicide case to be dismissed. 

Roughly 10 to 15 per cent of all felony cases were dismissed prior to Gardner's election, but has since risen to nearly 30 per cent in her terms, NPR St. Louis reported.  

A judge recently said the circuit attorney has 'essentially abandoned its duty to prosecute those it charges with crimes.' 


The office has been dogged by short staffing as lawyers flee the department for private practice - with the number of employees on board sitting at less than half that of the previous administration, according to a September investigation by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.   

Her 30 lawyers said they were unable to fully prepare for cases, attend court dates and hearings, while many new recruits had quit soon after being hired. The developments have also angered police who wanted her office to take on more cases, the newspaper reported. 

Police had submitted paperwork to file several charges against the 27-year-old carjacking suspect - who reportedly has a rap sheet complete with domestic violence and first-degree property damage convictions - after the incident early Saturday morning.

The incident began when officers responded to reported gunshots near South Tucker Boulevard and Chouteau Avenue around 3am. 

Officers, who were in a marked police car, said the man stepped in front of their car as they were moving before pointing a gun through the passenger window in an attempted carjack. He reportedly ran off after realizing officers were in the car and was apprehended about a block away in a restaurant parking lot. 

Police officers were 'able to maneuver out of harm’s way while the suspect simultaneously discovered he was attempting to carjack a fully marked police car,' authorities said. 

Witness footage showed the man being arrested by a large group of officers and he appeared to surrender peacefully and the gun was reportedly recovered by police. 

Although the footage didn't show the man clearly, he was seen being handcuffed and moved toward a police car in a restaurant parking lot. 

St. Louis has seen crime rates remain static over the past year after a huge rise in violence in 2020 - when the city's homicide rate increased by nearly 30 per cent, giving the city America's highest murder rate per capita. 

There has been 58 robberies so far during 2022, as well as 11 murders, 218 aggravated assaults, and 267 motor vehicle thefts. 

Residents of the area said carjacking wasn't the norm in the area and were happy the assistant was arrested without incident. 

'That's goofy,' St. Louis resident Curtis Tisdale told Fox 2 Now. 'You're trying to jack the people who are trying to protect us. 
'Go to church, pray,' he said. 'Get off the streets.' 

Another local Lord Wilson said it was 'surprising' and 'shocking,' as carjackings don't often happen along Chouteau Avenue. Although, he did say that he heard 'a lot of people getting killed over carjackings.' 

Also in the Midtown district last month, two Lyft drivers were attacked and carjacked in St. Louis, leaving one driver a bitten ear. Three men held one Lyft driver at gunpoint and stole his car, while another female suspect bit off a driver's ear after throwing his cell phone out of the car and attempted to steal his car keys. 

DailyMail.com has contacted the Circuit Attorney for comment 

St. Louis is the only city that is struggling to keep lawyers in its District Attorney's Office. Philadelphia is also struggling to hire more lawyers, despite recently hiring  more. 

Plot twist!  He didn't do it. 

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/prosecutor-says-new-video-proves-st-louis-cops-lied-about-carjacking-attempt/article_1d6c9748-aa94-5e8f-9b36-0aa9e0386c81.html

Quote:ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis circuit attorney’s office has contradicted a highly publicized police account that two officers were nearly carjacked last month. Prosecutors on Tuesday called the police summary false and said the officers are now under investigation for lying in a sworn statement.


The officers were coached on what to say by a lieutenant, prosecutors allege. And video, they say, reveals nothing criminal — no gun pointed at an officer’s head, no attempted holdup.

Six days after the March 19 incident, the circuit attorney’s office got tired of waiting for police to turn over videos of the attempted carjacking, said chief warrant officer Chris Hinckley. So a prosecutor’s office employee called a local business directly to see if there was footage of the incident.


That video, segments of which were released to reporters in an unusual move Tuesday, disproves the police account, Hinckley said.

While an officer said a man ran toward the police vehicle, tapped on the window with a handgun and pointed the gun at an officer, Hinckley said the business footage shows the man walking into the street, into the path of the police pickup, then walking away without ever lifting his hands from his side.

The entire confrontation lasted two or three seconds.


“This is nowhere near what he (an officer) represented,” Hinckley said. “You wonder why nobody got this footage.”


Hinckley announced that the circuit attorney’s office was dropping a weapons charge Tuesday against the 27-year-old man whose arrest made national news.


After viewing the video, the prosecutor summarized the man’s actions as what some might find tantamount to jaywalking, not criminal.


The man remains in custody in Jefferson County on unrelated charges.


The video of the encounter released Tuesday shows a police truck approach a man walking in or near the street and stopping. The truck then drives off camera as the man continues walking. Both disappear off camera.


The truck is next seen driving back toward where the encounter took place and in the direction of the man. The truck leaves the field of vision of the camera, and any second encounter is not visible.


St. Louis Police did not make Chief John Hayden available for an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

Police spokeswoman Evita Caldwell said police are aware of the allegations made by the circuit attorney’s office. However, Caldwell said, the office hasn’t shared any material with police.

“We have requested their supported material and will conduct a review,” Caldwell said.


The St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, said it stands behind the officers. The association wondered why the circuit attorney didn’t release the rest of the videos or mention that the suspect had made a confession.

Those would “fully and completely decimate the fairy tale narrative spun in today’s press conference,” the union said.

Jay Schroeder, head of the police union, said the relationship with the circuit attorney’s office has been adversarial and this is the latest example. He declined to talk about Hinckley’s findings because the officers will now be investigated.


Earlier, Schroeder told the Post-Dispatch, “If the officers felt it was attempted carjacking, we felt that should’ve been charged.”


Charge dropped
Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner did not attend the news conference. Her employees wouldn’t say if the officers involved in this case were on what she calls her “exclusion list” of officers she believes can’t be trusted.

Gardner’s office originally had charged the suspect, a St. Louis man, with unlawful use of a weapon: pointing a black Taurus G2c handgun at the head and torso of an officer. That charge is now dismissed.

Police reported that the attempted carjacking happened early on March 19, a Saturday, in the city’s LaSalle Park neighborhood.

About 3 a.m., two officers had been driving to Chouteau Avenue and Seventh Street to check on a report of gunfire. According to a police summary, the officers saw a man run from a nearby bus stop and stand in the middle of Chouteau.


The 27-year-old man stepped in front of the officers’ police pickup truck on eastbound Chouteau near South Tucker Boulevard, preventing the police vehicle from moving, an officer said in court documents. The suspect walked to the passenger side and pointed a gun “directly at the torso and head” of another officer, police said in their report.


Police called it an attempted carjacking. The man ran off once he realized it was a marked police vehicle, police said. The officers put out a call for an “officer in need of aid.” Other officers came to the scene and began searching for the gunman. Police said they arrested him in the search and found him carrying a gun, which was not loaded. No one was injured.


Later that day, police sought charges of first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and resisting arrest. The circuit attorney’s office refused those charges and asked for more information, including any video evidence.

Hinckley said prosecutors asked repeatedly, over several days, for body camera footage and business videos.
 Police turned over bodycam footage four days after the incident. The officers’ bodycam videos weren’t turned on while they were seated in their vehicle; police never made an effort to get the business video, Hinckley said.


One officer’s bodycam footage recorded for nearly four hours after the incident, including conversations at the police station with a commander. Hinckley said those conversations indicate the commander was coaching the officers on how to write the report. Hinckley only showed brief clips from the recordings.


At the scene, after the suspect was arrested, one of the officers is heard, agitated and breathless, on bodycam footage saying that the man ran up on them and pointed a gun.


“He put a (expletive) gun, like this, at my window,” the officer said. He added: “He came running with full speed, he wasn’t walking. He came charging like this.”


The officer continued, on audio picked up from the bodycam: “He came from that bus stop and came literally charging at the car with the gun out, and put the gun to the window at Ricky like this. I said, ‘Is this dude for real?’”


Video account
What Hinckley saw on the business video was far different from the police account.


The video was taken from about a half-block away, across a parking lot, at night and in poorly lit conditions. The picture quality wasn’t crisp, and reporters asked Hinckley what he saw in the video.


Hinckley said the video shows the man walking into the street before the police vehicle drives up.


“He appears to be walking to cross the street,” Hinckley said, “but he stops due to the officers’ vehicle coming up upon him, which he stops, he takes a step back, he keeps his hands by his side and then moves to the left side of the vehicle, walking, never increasing or decreasing his pace. His hands appear to remain by his side.”
The Post-Dispatch asked Hinckley if the officers lied.


“That’s a safe assumption in some matters of this, yes,” Hinckley replied.


Redditt Hudson, a former St. Louis police officer who works with the diversion and alternative prosecution program within Gardner’s office, accompanied Hinckley to the news conference Tuesday. Hudson said the office rarely comments on investigations but felt compelled to do so in this case.


“If not for police body-worn cameras and business security camera footage, the truth of this matter would have never seen the light of day,” Hudson said. “What our investigation reveals is a serious breach of trust in our city’s criminal justice system.”


Last month, St. Louis police denied a public information request by the Post-Dispatch for available dashcam or body camera footage of the confrontation. The department cited an open investigation as the reason for not releasing the footage to the public. Police denied the request again on Tuesday.

"woke progressive"

[*michaelsean*]

I never heard of not prosecuting a white guy described as woke.

[GMDino]

(04-08-2022, 11:17 AM)michaelsean Wrote: I never heard of not prosecuting a white guy described as woke.

The DA was described as "woke" and "progressive" for not immediately charging the suspect without all the evidence.  She doesn't prosecute fast enough (or enough) for the police's liking apparently.

[*michaelsean*]

(04-08-2022, 11:27 AM)GMDino Wrote: The DA was described as "woke" and "progressive" for not immediately charging the suspect without all the evidence.  She doesn't prosecute fast enough (or enough) for the police's liking apparently.

Yeah but when that happened with the two white guys that killed the black kid, nobody described it as woke.

[*Nately120*]

(04-08-2022, 11:17 AM)michaelsean Wrote: I never heard of not prosecuting a white guy described as woke.

Straight white males are the new oppressed minority.  Much like emo teenagers, we know everyone hates us and that life is pointlessly miserable and everyone is out to bring us down.

[*michaelsean*]

(04-08-2022, 11:30 AM)Nately120 Wrote: Straight white males are the new oppressed minority.  Much like emo teenagers, we know everyone hates us and that life is pointlessly miserable and everyone is out to bring us down.

Not prosecuting white guys is always a racist double standard. Never heard it described as woke.

[GMDino]

(04-08-2022, 11:30 AM)michaelsean Wrote: Yeah but when that happened with the two white guys that killed the black kid, nobody described it as woke.

True!

But this guy pointed a gun at an officer while trying to carjack a police car.

Defund the police, ,something, something...