January 30, 2019, 11:13 AM
h2oysHere is the latest from our only local newspaper - St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Note they are known for their liberal bias:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/...s-overinvestigation-into-officer/article_53054c2a-13c0-591a-877b-a7a5e7cc8b86.html
St. Louis prosecutor, police trade barbs over
investigation into officer's shooting death
By Robert Patrick and Jeremy Kohler St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5 hrs ago
A bit of of police tape remains on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, as evidence of a shooting at home in the 700
block of Dover Place where a St. Louis police officer was allegedly shot in the chest and killed by another
on-duty police officer.
• St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner described
the police department’s investigation of the Russian roulette-style
shooting that killed a young officer as “obstructionist” and “completely
inappropriate.”
Jimmie Edwards, the public safety director who oversees the
department and reports to Mayor Lyda Krewson, said the police
department is “excellent” and that Gardner’s criticism was “ludicrous.”
Police Chief John Hayden could not be reached for comment.
It was another day in the flame war between the police department and
the city’s top prosecutor at a time when St. Louisans are discussing a
plan to get rid of each in a merger with St. Louis County.
In a letter released on Tuesday,
Gardner questioned whether
police tried to block drug and
alcohol testing of on-duty St.
Louis police officers who were
present when an off-duty
colleague, Katlyn Alix, was shot
last week.
Gardner’s office charged Officer
Nathaniel Hendren Friday with
involuntary manslaughter and
armed criminal action in
connection with Alix’s death.
St. Louis Police Officer Katlyn Alix in a photo released by
the department. She was shot and killed on Jan. 24,
2019.
The letter to Hayden and
Edwards said there was
“probable cause at the scene
that drugs or alcohol may be a
contributing factor in a potential
crime.” But Gardner says a
police lieutenant erroneously
told her office that the hospital
would not honor a search
warrant for the officers’ blood.
Gardner wrote that hospitals
commonly accept search
warrants in criminal cases.
Letter: St. Louis prosecutor criticizes
investigation into officer's shooting
And she complained that the
police department had taken
urine and breath tests in a way that she believed would block their use
in a criminal prosecution.
Edwards said it wasn’t true. A public employee’s urine and breath tests
cannot be shielded from prosecutors the same way incriminating
statements can be. He said urine is often used to test for drugs, and
said prosecutors, and the public, would find out the results of the
screening. He also called the claim that drugs and alcohol may have
been at the scene of Alix’s shooting “a bad assumption” but declined to
say more.
The reputations of both sides are taking a beating.
St. Louis Police Officer Nathaniel Hendren was charged
with involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal
action in the fatal shooting of Officer Katlyn Alix.
Gardner was fined $63,009 this month for using campaign money for
personal expenses, and she is still under a cloud for employing an
investigator who is accused of lying under oath in the criminal case
against former Gov. Eric Greitens.
The police department saw four officers indicted in November on federal
charges in connection with the beating of an undercover police officer
during protests in St. Louis in 2017, and were accused of mistreatment
by numerous protesters. And Gardner’s office blacklisted 28 officers in
2018, including them on an “exclusion list” that bans them from bringing
cases to her office for charges. She has not said why each was on the
list, but has said that defending the integrity of the justice system is an
important part of her job.
It was the second time this week that Gardner alleged misconduct in a
St. Louis police internal affairs investigation. On Monday, her office
charged two St. Louis police officers in connection with a shooting
outside a bar last spring, in a case where police officers had initially
sought criminal charges against the victim.
In comments on Tuesday, Edwards insisted the police department was
not dysfunctional. “We should not vilify the entire department based on
what happened here,” he said.
The alleged activity that led to the multiple arrests, Edwards said,
spanned a longer period. “It’s important we don’t be alarmist here. …
There is not a social pattern of dysfunctionality in the St. Louis Police
Department.”
He added, “I hold them accountable.”
He said he would like to develop a mentoring program, because after
training, new officers tend to go back to their young colleagues from the
academy. He wants them being exposed to older, more experienced
officers.
Edwards said the best test for drugs would be a hair test — and said no
one has asked for that yet.
Dave Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and
a former police officer, said it wasn’t clear to him whether the police
department was trying to obstruct a criminal investigation or if internal
affairs investigators were just doing their jobs. He said internal affairs
would have to investigate for there to be any disciplinary action.
Gardner’s letter also complained that police officials initially
characterized the shooting as an “accident” or an incident involving the
“mishandling” of a firearm, which she called an “inappropriate” “predisposed
conclusion about the potential outcome of a case.”
“It’s particularly troublesome given that the Force Investigative Unit is
required to conduct objective investigations of officer-involved
shootings,” she wrote.
Edwards said Hayden, when he called the shooting accidental early
Thursday, “operated on the information he was given,” and said
investigations are often “fluid.” He said Hayden should not be criticized
for trying to provide information to the public and be transparent.
The police department said Hayden was unavailable for comment, but
that he would be able to talk with reporters later this week.
Hendren made his first court appearance Tuesday by video from jail.
Sheriff’s officials said Hendren would be moved to a jail outside the city
for his own protection. His lawyer is trying to get Hendren’s $50,000
cash bail reduced.
Hendren and his partner, both 29, were supposed to be on duty early
Thursday in the city’s 2nd District but were at Hendren’s house about 2
miles away with Alix, who was off duty. Charging documents say
Hendren removed all the bullets from a revolver, then put one back. He
and Alix took turns pulling the trigger on the gun while pointing it at each
other, according to court documents. Alix was shot in the chest and was
pronounced dead after Hendren and his partner rushed her to St. Louis
University Hospital.
Hendren’s lawyer, Talmage Newton IV, said in a statement that Gardner
“ignored the seasoned professionals on the scene, who are experienced
and entrusted with investigations, when she filed these uninformed and
unsustainable charges.”
However, the police department’s own Force Investigation Unit handled
the investigation. The department on Friday issued a statement saying
that unit “presented their initial findings to the Circuit Attorney’s Office
which resulted in warrants being issued for Involuntary Manslaughter
and Armed Criminal Action.”
Shooting of
