Suspects in custody in shooting of 2 St. Louis police officers and bystander

by Jesse Bogan and Nassim Benchaabane St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Two suspects were in custody Friday night in a shooting that left two officers and a woman who was doing laundry wounded.

The officers, a man and a woman, were attacked in the 800 block of Dickson Street and then drove themselves to near 14th Street and Cass Avenue, where they called for help, officials said. They were in stable condition at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The officers, members of the gang squad, were “ambushed” by two people they recognized and wanted to question, acting Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said at a press conference Friday night.. He said the two fired on the officers with an assault-style rifle and a handgun. One officer was apparently able to fire one or two shots in return before the officers sped away, O’Toole said.

The suspects, ages 22 and 24, were taken into custody without further gunfire, and the weapons were recovered. O’Toole described both suspects as having criminal histories but did not release more details. He said both would probably face assault and weapons charges.

A woman identified by her mother as Tamara Collier, 24, was apparently hit by a stray bullet fired from the assault rifle that went through walls and doors and struck her in the head, O’Toole said Friday night. He said Collier’s condition was critical.

“The direction of where the lady was in her home was directly behind where the officers were,” he said. “The type of damage — the bullet went through walls, and through doors — tells us this type of damage could only be done by a high-power rifle.”

O’Toole said the attackers fired “indiscriminately” at officers without regard for bystanders.

“These are violent offenders, and they don’t want to be taken,” he said. “They don’t have — they don’t care about anyone else, and they’re firing an assault rifle like this in a highly urban area; obviously they have total disregard for the safety of anyone other than themselves.”

The injured officers were identified as a man, 35, with about nine years on the job; and a woman, 32, with 10 years’ experience, O’Toole said as he met with reporters briefly outside Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The officers were shot in the legs and hands and had shrapnel injuries to the face, O’Toole said.

“These officers did a wonderful job, I’m proud of them. They are heroes,” he said.

Mayor Lyda Krewson joined O’Toole at the hospital.

“It’s a dangerous job they are doing for us every day, and their actions are courageous,” Krewson said. “Their families are gathering, and we just hope for the best for them.”

Mia Caddell arrived to the bloody scene at her home, just north of downtown, after the two police officers had been shot in the street nearby.

Caddell was at a store when she saw police in the neighborhood where she has lived for 20 years. She came home in the 1400 block of North Ninth Street to find her baby granddaughter covered in blood, and her daughter, Collier, lying in a pool of blood near the back door. Caddell could hear her daughter moaning.

She said her daughter was shot through the neck as she did laundry. The bullet entered through the home’s back door. Collier’s 1-year-old daughter was there but was uninjured, according to Caddell, 52. Collier also has a son, 5, who was not in the home at the time.

Caddell said it wasn’t clear Friday evening if Collier was going to walk again. She was taken to St. Louis University Hospital, where doctors were conducting an MRI, Caddell said.

Relatives said Collier was a 2011 graduate of Vashon High School and was scheduled to start a new job Tuesday as a certified nursing assistant at a veterans nursing home.

“The bastard that did this, I want them caught. I want justice because she was in the house, she had nothing to do with what was going on,” Caddell said.

It is common to hear shots fired in the neighborhood, she said, but “still, I never had the idea that a stray bullet would come through my house.”

Numerous police officers blocked off the parking lot behind the home. There were several shell casing markers about 40 yards from the back door in question.

Neighbors said they heard shots that seemed to come from behind the home.

“It’s a shame,” Calvin McIntosh, 33, said of the area of subsidized housing. “I have kids who can’t come out and play.”

As part of the investigation, officers searched a gray Pontiac at 14th and Cass , and then it was towed away.

A spokesman for St. Louis Public Schools said several schools were on “soft” lock down and would have no outdoor activities and no visitors. Those schools were Vashon High School, Dunbar, Gateway and Jefferson elementary schools, Innovative Concept Academy alternative school and Gateway and Carr Lane middle schools.

Blythe Bernhard, Denise Hollinshed and Jeremy Kohler, of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.

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