A judge acquitted a former St Louis police officer of murder in the 2011 killing of a drug suspect, sparking street demonstrations that put protesters face-to-face with police in riot gear.
Judge Timothy Wilson found the former officer, Jason Stockley, not guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith.
The bench ruling on Friday came more than a month after testimony concluded.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Protesters had threatened civil disobedience if Stockley was acquitted and authorities took steps to deal with that scenario.
All three downtown courthouses, including the federal courthouse, and some city schools were closed on Friday in anticipation of the verdict.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes with protesters in St Louis early yesterday after a white former policeman was acquitted of murdering a black suspect.
A rally over the not-guilty verdict turned violent after police confronted a small group of demonstrators.
Officers fired tear gas as people broke windows at a library and two restaurants, and threw bricks and water bottles at officers.
Protesters also threw rocks and paint at the home of St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, acting police commissioner Lawrence O’Toole said.
Nine city officers and a state trooper were injured and at least 23 people were taken into custody, he said.
After the ruling, about 600 protesters marched from the courthouse through downtown St Louis, chanting: “No justice, no peace” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! These killer cops have got to go.”
Some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.
“I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m mad,” Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St Louis said by telephone. “We haven’t made any progress since Ferguson, that’s clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity.”
Stockley and his partner saw what appeared to be a drug transaction in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant on Dec. 20, 2011.
As the officers sought to corner Smith, he drove away.
Stockley’s defense attorney Neil Bruntrager said the officers were nearly run over.
Stockley fired at the fleeing car before a chase began.
Police dashcam video captured Stockley saying: “Going to kill this ... don’t you know it,” in the midst of the chase.
As Smith’s car slowed, Stockley told his partner to slam the police SUV into it, and his partner did so. Stockley then got out of the SUV and fired five shots into Smith’s car, killing him.
Bruntrager said Stockley fired only after Smith refused commands to put up his hands and reached along the seat toward an area where a gun was found.
Prosecutors said Stockley planted the gun.
Testing found Stockley’s DNA on the gun, but not Smith’s.
Stockley, now 36, graduated from a Catholic high school in nearby Belleville, Illinois, then went to the US Military Academy at West Point.
After graduation, he served in Iraq, where he was injured and awarded the Army Bronze Star.
Stockley joined the St Louis Police Department in 2007. He resigned in 2013, about two years after the shooting, and moved to Houston, Texas.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats