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St. Louis Police Hit a Church Sign —- And Then Covered Their Tracks | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

February 13, 2024

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click to enlarge FRANCISCO GONZALES A neighbor of Westminster Presbyterian Church took this from a third-floor window — the only reason the church even knows a police SUV destroyed its sign. When the Rev. Mark Miller discovered that the century-old welcome sign in front of his church had been destroyed last August, he initially assumed it was vandalism. It wouldn’t have been the first time Westminster Presbyterian Church was targeted. Just a year before, in fact, more than a dozen windows and a door on the church building in St. Louis’ Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood had been broken. And that the Pride flag in front of the church disappeared this time didn’t seem like a coincidence.In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch soon after the sign’s destruction, Miller noted the circumstances: Tire tracks were visible heading towards the sign, and no swerve marks suggested the crash was unintentional. But if someone crashed into the brick edifice with a vehicle, they’d also taken surprising care to clean up. “The crazy thing is there’s no debris from a car,” he told the daily.It wasn’t until a friendly neighbor got in touch that Miller learned something even crazier.The vehicle that hit the sign had been a St. Louis police SUV. But rather than reach out to explain what had happened, much less apologize for it, police cleared the scene — and then, Miller says, failed to communicate anything. The proof came from Francisco Gonzales, who’s lived across the street from the church for six years. Living on a third-floor unit at the corner of Union and Delmar, Gonzales has gotten used to car crashes on the streets below. “It happens so often, we don’t jump out of our bed to look out the window,” he says. But that night, August 15, 2023, was different. After initially hearing a loud boom around 7:30 p.m., Gonzales says he heard a significant police presence responding to the scene, to the point that he took a look — and saw a police SUV had crashed into the neighboring church’s sign. His photos, which he shared with both Miller and, recently, the RFT, capture the aftermath. click to enlarge FRANCISCO GONZALES Neighbor Francisco Gonzales captured this image of a police SUV after it crashed into Westminster Presbyterian Church’s welcome sign. Gonzales shared his photos with Miller a few days after the crash. “He was very surprised,” Gonzales recalls.Miller says, at that point, he’d been trying for days to get a police officer to come out and take a report, to no avail. He waited one night for hours. Yet never once had anyone suggested the police might be the source of the damage. Now, what might surprise someone not accustomed to dealing with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is that even after Miller had photographic evidence that a police vehicle was to blame, the city continued to give him the runaround. A full week after the accident, when police still hadn’t shown up to take a report or explain what had happened, Miller went to the police substation in person. This time, when they said they couldn’t take a report, confronted them with the photos. They sent him away — but he got a call in 30 minutes. An officer told him a brake line on the police SUV had broken, and rather than hit another car, the officer steered onto the church lawn. Even so, the officer still didn’t take a report, but said he needed to file a complaint with the Citizens’ Service Bureau — and after that, the city counselor’s office would supposedly be in touch in a few weeks. He did as told, but no one was. Months passed. No one reached out. In January, after a police SUV crashed into Bar:PM, Miller reached out to Mayor Tishaura Jones. “As of this email – we still cannot get a police report – a CSSB report – or a word from the city counselors office,” he wrote. “I have attached pictures and a report of what happened. This report was sent to Chief Tracy on October 8th as well. After seeing the apology to the bar owners – I decided to reach out to you directly and see if we can settle this matter.” Someone in Jones’ office responded saying they’d look into the situation — but two more weeks passed without word. click to enlarge COURTESY MARK MILLER The church’s longstanding welcome sign was wrenched from its brick base and left toppled on the ground.
In fact, it wasn’t until the RFT reached out yesterday that an investigator with the city’s law department finally reached out to Miller to help the church with a claims process. “We regret that you have experienced an unpleasant incident,” the email stated.Reached for comment, a spokesman for the public safety department replied with one sentence: “The Police Department remains in contact with Rev. Miller to resolve this matter.”Miller is frustrated. “I love being in St. Louis,” he says. “I’ve been here 21 years.” He also knows the stress police are under, and says he worries about their mental health. “We don’t do enough about that,” he says. Still, he believes police attempted to cover up the damage they caused. He’s also frustrated that six months have passed since their vehicle caused what he estimates is $20,000 in damage. “This has gone on long enough,” he says. It is certainly a footnote in a bigger story, one about police who can’t seem to stop running into things, and a city that doesn’t know how to handle it when they do. But when Miller first reached out to the Post-Dispatch, back when he thought the knocked-down sign was a case of vandalism, perhaps from someone who also took the church’s Pride flag, they quickly published a story.Miller followed up days later to explain that it was actually a police vehicle that had hit the church’s sigh, and that a neighbor had photos. He never got a response. Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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