St. Louis District Attorney Kim Gardner (pictured) declined to press charges against a 27-year-old suspect who pointed a gun at police officers and attempted to steal a marked police car on Saturday. Her office did not comment on the decision.
The St. Louis District Attorney’s office has declined to press charges against an armed robbery suspect who tried to steal a marked police car on Saturday and pointed a gun at police officers.
The police wanted to charge the 27-year-old man, who they did not identify, with robbery in the first degree, armed criminal acts and resisting arrest.
Police told on Tuesday that the man’s identity was not made public due to the allegations against the suspect being “dismissed by the District Attorney’s office, making his identity a closed record.”
Prosecutors did not give a reason why they refused to charge the suspect.
The office is led by St. Louis District Attorney Kim Gardner, who was elected on a “wake up” platform to avoid prosecuting many misdemeanors and felonies, police have criticized her office for not taking on more cases. She recently sued the police for racism, but the case was dropped.
She is also currently under investigation for misconduct, according to the New York Post.
Under her leadership, in 2019, the department opened only 1,500 of the 7,000 criminal cases in the city’s police department. Figures for her entire term were not available.
A 27-year-old man, who was not identified by police because Gardner’s office decided not to charge him, making it a “closed record”, was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant (pictured) after attempting to hijack two police officers and hold them at gunpoint
St. Louis District Attorney Kim Gardner was elected for her ‘progressive’ platform
St. Louis District Attorney Kim Gardner
District Attorney Kim Gardner was elected in 2016 for her “progressive” platform, on which she advocated de-prosecution for misdemeanors and felonies, resulting in only 1,500 of 7,000 criminal cases in the city being prosecuted in 2019.
In 2019, Gardner promised to increase the number of court cases and reduce the cash bond for petty litigation.
She promised to enroll more criminals in diversion programs — a probation-like scheme that helps them get jobs and access mental health care — to keep a criminal from going to jail.
“I know that a history of high arrest rates, high conviction rates and long prison stays has not made our city safer,” she said at the time.
“In fact, in many ways, heavy-handed criminal justice measures in the past have played a significant role in destabilizing families, neighborhoods and communities in our city.”
In 2018, she “summoned” 56% of minor offenders instead of posting bail. Those with criminal charges will still have to appear in court or face arrest.
She announced the change after the city was sued over the bail system, according to NPR in St. Louis.
In addition, she is under review by the Missouri Disciplinary Board for misconduct in her role, and she sued the police department for racism, which was dismissed, the New York Post reported in January.
Its staff reported that they could not attend hearings and be fully prepared for the hearing of cases due to lack of staff. Recently, Gardner assigned the case to a lawyer who was on maternity leave and did not transfer the case to another employee, resulting in the murder case being dropped.
Approximately 10 to 15 percent of all felony cases were closed before Gardner was elected, but that figure has since risen to nearly 30 percent in her terms, NPR St. Louis reports.
The judge recently said the district attorney has “virtually relinquished his duty to prosecute those he accuses of crimes.”
According to a September investigation by St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the office is understaffed as lawyers flee the department in favor of private practice, with less than half the staff on the board compared to the previous administration.
Her 30 lawyers said they were unable to fully prepare for cases, attend court hearings and hearings, and many recruits left shortly after they were hired. The newspaper said the events also angered the police, who wanted her office to take on more cases.
Police have filed paperwork to file multiple charges against a 27-year-old auto theft suspect who reportedly has a criminal record for domestic violence and first-degree property damage following an incident early Saturday morning.
The incident began when officers responded to reports of gunshots near South Tucker Boulevard and Chouteau Avenue around 3 a.m.
Officers who were in the marked police car said the man stood in front of their car as they moved before pointing a gun at the passenger window in an attempted carjacking. He reportedly fled after realizing there were officers in the car and was detained about a block away in the parking lot of a restaurant.
Police officers “were able to evade the danger while the suspect simultaneously found himself trying to steal a fully marked police car,” authorities said.
Witness footage shows the man being arrested by a large group of officers and he appeared to surrender peacefully, with police reportedly seizing the gun.
Although the man was not clearly visible in the footage, he was seen in handcuffs and moving towards a police car in the restaurant’s parking lot.
In St. Louis, the crime rate has remained flat for the past year after a sharp increase in violence in 2020, when the city’s homicide rate increased by nearly 30 percent, giving the city the highest per capita homicide rate in America.
So far in 2022, there have been 58 robberies, 11 murders, 218 aggravated assaults, and 267 auto thefts.
Residents of the area said that car thefts were not the norm in the area and were happy that the assistant was arrested without incident.
“It’s stupid,” St. Louis resident Curtis Tisdale told Fox 2 Now. “You are trying to deceive 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 car thefts don’t happen often on Chouteau Avenue. Although he said he heard that “a lot of people died because of car theft.”
Also in the Midtown area last month, two Lyft drivers were attacked and stole a car in St. Louis, resulting in one driver being bitten on the ear. Three men held one Lyft driver at gunpoint and stole his car, while another female suspect bit off the driver’s ear after throwing his cell phone out of the car and trying to steal his car keys.
contacted the District 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.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who took office in 2018, lost 70 lawyers in December, leaving Krasner with only 261 lawyers to lose. in a state of chaos.
The office has 340 lawyers, but constant staff turnover makes it harder for employees to handle cases that ex-employees describe as “unsustainable.”
Krasner mentioned the rapid downsizing, but suggested that other positions offering work-from-home options, higher wages than $63,000, and “insatiable terms of employment” were due to the retention rate.