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Parents of VonDerrit Myers Reach Settlement in Police Shooting | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 16, 2023

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click to enlarge PHOTO BY STEVE TRUESDELL Then-State Rep. Bruce Franks, center, at a memorial honoring VonDerrit Myers, who was killed by police in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

A civil lawsuit stemming from the 2018 shooting death of an 18-year-old by a police officer working private security in the Shaw neighborhood appears to be headed for settlement soon. Almost nine years ago, VonDerrit Myers Jr. was killed in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis city by Jason Flanery, a St. Louis city police officer who was working a private security job in the neighborhood. The shooting occurred in October 2014, only two months after Michael Brown was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson. Though not to the same extent as the shooting death of Brown, Myers’ killing and the lack of criminal charges against Flanery received national media attention and set off protests as well as accusations of a cover-up. click to enlarge COURTESY OF JERRYL CHRISTMAS VonDerrit Myers Jr., right.

The specifics of the shooting were hotly debated at the time. On the night in question, Flanery was patrolling Flora Place, whose community improvement district had hired Flanery’s employer GCI to provide private security on the street as well as the blocks around it. Earlier that evening, Flanery chased a group of young men, though it’s unclear what crime he suspected them of committing. When Flanery saw Myers and three other young men a little after 7 p.m. walking near Shaw Boulevard, he thought they were the same cohort. Flanery, who was wearing his police uniform, announced himself as a police officer. Myers and his companions fled.Myers allegedly grabbed his waistband as he ran. Flanery opened fire, killing the teen across Klemm Street from the Shaw Market, where Myers had purchased a sandwich earlier in the night.Flanery said that Myers had fired at him first. A weapon was recovered near Myers and, according to a report compiled by the office of then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, ballistics evidence matched it to shell casings recovered at the scene. Notably, despite Flanery having been hired to work private security by the Flora Place Community Improvement District, the shooting occurred six blocks from Flora. “He was well outside of Flora Place,” says attorney Jerryl Christmas, who represents Myers’ parents in their wrongful death lawsuit. “If he had stayed on Flora Place this never would have happened.”

Flanery left the force about two years after the shooting in the wake of crashing a police vehicle while intoxicated. Myers’ shooting presaged a wider debate in the city about neighborhoods’ use of private policing, a debate that has only grown louder in recent months and years. In a 2022 deepdive on the topic in ProPublica, Stanford University criminal law professor David Sklansky was quoted as saying that private policing “represents a retreat” from the ideal that police are a public good and protect everyone equally.

Three years prior to that story, Flanery himself said in a 2019 deposition that Flora Place hired GCI “to keep the crime that’s in Shaw neighborhood as far away from the Flora Place neighborhood as they can.”

Myers’ parents, VonDerrit Myers Sr. and Syreeta Myers, filed their suit in February 2018, naming Flanery, the Flora Place Community Improvement District and GCI Security as defendants. According to the suit, Flanery fired at Myers eight times, with six of the bullets striking him on his back side.”VonDerrit posed no threat to Flanery or the public when he was gunned down. The killing was therefore unjustified, willful and reckless,” the suit reads. More than five years after the suit was originally filed, it appears to be on the verge of settlement, meaning that a scheduled October jury trial will not happen.

Earlier this month, attorneys for both the Myers family and the defendants Flanery and GCI Security filed a motion to approve a proposed agreed-upon settlement. The Flora Place Community Improvement District has since been dismissed from the suit by Judge Elizabeth Hogan.The court filings are light on specifics, saying only that both parties have reached a “confidential settlement agreement” and are asking Judge Hogan to approve it.”I’m glad that it is coming to an end. There is no amount of money that will replace the loss that VonDerrit Sr. and Syreeta suffered,” Christmas tells the RFT. “It’s very unfortunate how much additional suffering they had to go through with the legal fight involved in this. GCI and Flora Place fought this family hard, causing so much additional suffering to these parents.”

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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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