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St. Louis Officer Shot In The Neck During Traffic Stop Is In Hospital ‘Fighting For His Life’ – Suspect In Custody

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 09:31 PST, Jul 8, 2016

Authorities in St. Louis say that an officer is in critical condition after being shot in the neck during a routine traffic stop. According to the STL Today, at approximately 11 a.m. Friday, a Ballwin officer – whose name has not been released – pulled an “older-model blue Ford Taurus with an Illinois temporary license plate,” over along New Ballwin Road just south of the Old Ballwin Road.

However, details leading up to the St. Louis police shooting has not been disclosed, but a witness living in the area stated that she ran out of her house after hearing several gunshots ring out. When the woman saw the officer lying on the street, she immediately ran to his aid.

“I tried to help the officer” by placing a towel over his neck, the witness said, but she wasn’t trained as a nurse nor was she familiar with CPR. “I’m just a mom,” she added. Another resident, who is trained as a nurse, administered CPR until emergency services arrived at the scene.

The driver of the vehicle, who has not been identified, but it was reported that it was a male, drove off and abandoned the vehicle at a nearby residence.

Other residents in the area spoke with reporters and stated that they heard the gunshots, but was unaware that a Ballwin police officer was shot during a traffic stop. “I thought it was kids or firecrackers or something,” the resident said. “I’m looking outside at many, many police officers. They all need our prayers.”

After the recent police shootings, there was a call for prayer where hundreds gathered to pray for the families of the officers, who were killed in the line of duty. But several social media users were outraged by the gesture stating, “Where was the moment of prayer when all the lives lost to police brutality.”

St. Louis police were able to capture the shooting suspect after a landlord, Danny Luster, who was doing house work near Valley View Drive and Lenjer Drive, saw the suspect hiding behind houses.

After learning that the suspect was hiding because he had allegedly shot a St. Louis police officer, who has been with the St. Louis Police Department for nine years, Luster said that he “hoped he would have come over here so I could have shot him.”

Ballwin police arrested the suspect in the backyard of a resident at 700 block of Valley View, where they tackled him to the ground. The owner of the home stated that she was watching the Dallas police shooting on the news when she heard the chaos. Not long after, she told reporters that she heard an officer say, “We found a gun.”

Documents say that three shots were reportedly fired at the Ballwin officer, but there is no word on how many times he was shot. What is known is that the St. Louis officer was shot at least once in the neck, and he was immediately rushed to Mercy Hospital St. Louis, where he was listed in critical condition.

The St. Louis shooting comes nearly a day after the Dallas police shooting where the alleged sniper, Micah Johnson, and another suspect opened fired during a Black Lives Matters protest, shooting about 50 rounds and killing five Dallas officers and injuring seven.

After the shooting suspect’s picture was broadcast via social media, he later turned himself into police headquarters.

According to the New York Times, Johnson reportedly admitted that the Dallas police shooting occurred because he was “upset at white people” over the “recent police shootings” where two black men – Alton Sterling and Philando Castile – were shot and killed by police.

A motive for the St. Louis shooting has not been disclosed, but Ballwin Police Chief Kevin Scott stated that the investigation is ongoing.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

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