A male St Louis police officer was on Friday charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a female officer during what was described as a deadly game with a revolver.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the charge against 29-year-old Nathaniel Hendren in the death of 24-year-old Katlyn Alix, as they allegedly played a game in which a revolver’s cylinder was emptied, one bullet put back and the two colleagues took turns pointing at each other and pulling the trigger.
Alix was with two male officers at an apartment when she was killed just before 1am on Thursday.
A probable cause statement from police, provided by Gardner’s office, offered a chilling account of the dangerous game that led to her death.
The probable cause statement said that Alix and Hendren were playing with guns when Hendren produced a revolver.
“The defendant emptied the cylinder of the revolver and then put one cartridge back into the cylinder,” the statement said.
He reportedly spun the cylinder, pointed the gun away and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire.
The statement said that Alix took the gun, pointed it at Hendren and pulled the trigger; again, it did not fire.
Hendren “took the gun back and pointed it at the victim [and] pulled the trigger, causing the gun to discharge,” the statement said. “The victim was struck in the chest.”
The other male officer told investigators that he warned Hendren and Alix not to play with guns and reminded them that they were police officers.
He was about to leave when he heard the fatal shot, the statement said.
The male officers drove Alix to a hospital, where she died.
Hendren also was charged with armed criminal action.
The two men were on-duty at the time of the shooting.
St Louis Police Commissioner John Hayden has declined to answer questions about why the officers had gathered at the apartment, which was home to one of the men.
St Louis police said that the charges were the result of a promise Hayden made to Alix’s family to conduct a “thorough and competent investigation.”
Alix, a military veteran who was married, was not on duty, but met the men at the apartment.
Police immediately launched an internal investigation and placed both officers on paid leave.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS