Local News

VIDEO: Woman Who Shot at St. Louis Students Is Out on Bond | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

March 1, 2023

[ad_1]

click to enlarge Courtesy SLMPD Cierra Wealleans booking photo.

Video obtained by the RFT appears to show a 20-year-old woman opening fire on two Confluence Preparatory Academy students last December. That woman, Cierra Wealleans, was charged with assault and armed criminal action that month and has remained free on bond despite violating the terms of her bond twice in December and eight times in January.

The alleged shooting occurred December 6, 2022, as the Downtown West charter school was being dismissed. A probable cause statement from St. Louis police says that Cierra Wealleans got into an argument with two students on the 15th Street sidewalk near several school buses.

The surveillance video of the incident is shot from a distance, but shows a woman with her hand in her jacket standing on the sidewalk in front of a white car. She draws the attention of an adult who positions himself between the woman and the students. Another individual wearing a jacket and tie, who according to the probable cause statement is the school principal, acts as a buffer between the woman and other bystanders. The two of them move onto 15th Street, at which point the woman pulls a gun out of her jacket and begins firing. Everyone in the area runs and ducks for cover.

The shooter is quickly tackled by the school principal and a security guard. The school buses leave the scene as quickly as they can.

A person on one of those buses captured a video of the security guard and the principal tackling the shooter to the ground. The video shows an ammo magazine laying on the sidewalk next to her as she is being subdued.

The police probable cause statement says that Wealleans dropped the gun as she was being tackled, causing it to fire again. A bullet grazed Wealleans’ hand.

Wealleans was arrested and charged with two counts of assault, two counts of armed criminal action, and one count of unlawful use of a weapon.

On December 8, Judge Madeline O. Connolly ordered Wealleans to be held with no bond.

But a week later, Wealleans was released on GPS monitoring and house arrest by Judge Clinton Robert Wright. Records from the Circuit Attorney’s Office indicate that the prosecutor’s office took the position Wealleans ought to have no bond and remain in jail. Nonetheless, she was released to wait for her court date on February 2, about six weeks later.

During those six weeks, Total Court Services, which operates the GPS monitors, alerted the court ten times that Wealleans had violated her GPS tracking throughout December and January.

A January 27 notification from Total Court Services says, “Dear Judge: The service of this client’s device has been disconnected…due to having a GPS strap tamper for 3 days.”

A “strap tamper” refers to an individual with the tracking device attempting to remove it.

The February 2 hearing was rescheduled until February 7, at which point a grand jury indicted Wealleans and her case was sent to a different judge’s courtroom.

On February 7, Judge Michael Stelzer ordered Wealleans to remain free on GPS monitoring despite the numerous violations throughout January.

On Monday, prosecutor Andrew Russek filed a motion requesting Wealleans’ bond be revoked, citing the monitoring violations.

This was at least the third time Wealleans’ bond status came before a judge.

Yesterday, Judge Rochelle Woodiest ordered that Wealleans immediately report to Total Court Services to have her GPS monitor re-installed. The judge scheduled a bond hearing in two weeks, on March 9, but Wealleans remains free on bond in the meantime.

Details of Wealleans’ case are seeing scrutiny thanks to the dispute between Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and the 22nd Circuit Court in St. Louis regarding who was responsible for 21-year-old Daniel Riley being free on bond when he caused a car crash that resulted in a teenager visiting from out of town to lose both her legs.

At the heart of the contention is whether prosecutors made an oral motion for Riley to remain out of jail on bond. Riley had racked up dozens of GPS monitoring violations, and Gardner’s office says they asked for bond to be revoked — but the lack of a written motion to revoke has led critics to question the assertion. (Riley’s former defense attorney has stated that Gardner’s office sought orally to revoke the bond at least once.) The controversy has demonstrated how difficult it can be to determine from court records how issues of bond are determined in hearings.

On Monday, it appeared as though the Riley case has altered how prosecutors carry out their business in court. In the courtroom of Judge Bryan Hettenbach, someone made a remark about how parties with business before the court were now “documenting everything.” In reply, the judge quipped that he had “stacks of paperwork the state has filed about many things.” He added, “It’s a new day in the 22nd Circuit.”

We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

10 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

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

Published

10 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

10 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link