ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The St. Louis County Police Department is investigating possible excessive force involving an officer who recently switched departments.
The incident reportedly took place when the officer was working for Northwoods PD, a department that is already the focus of an excessive force investigation that resulted in criminal charges.
An abandoned field in Kinloch is at the center of an earlier police brutality investigation that began in July 2023. A homeless man was reportedly found in the field with a broken jaw.
Prosecutors say two now-former Northwoods officers are to blame and are charged with kidnapping. Both defendants maintain their innocence as they await their trials.
Now, St. Louis County Police say they are investigating a third Northwoods officer for potential excessive force. It involves an incident that took place May 11 involving multiple police departments. It all ended on Winkler Avenue, near South Terminal Drive in north St. Louis County.
In that incident, police say that three juvenile suspects were breaking into cars when they shot at someone. A 45-minute pursuit followed, where officers say they came under fire 35 times from an automatic weapon.
Investigators recovered two guns from the juvenile suspects at the scene. The St. Louis County Police Department is reviewing the response of a former Northwoods officer, who reportedly responded from outside of his district.
Police Chief Dennis Shireff declined to talk on camera, but confirmed the officer no longer works at Northwoods. He added that he was still in his probationary period when he left.
FOX 2 learned the officer has already been hired by a police department about seven miles north, at Riverview.
Riverview’s mayor and police chief ran a background check and found no evidence of any criminal investigations against the officer when he was with Northwoods.
However, what they did find is contained in an interdepartmental memo from Riverview Police Chief Tom Tumbrink to Mayor Mike Cornell.
The chief wrote, “(The officer) allegedly joined in on a pursuit to render aid and was disciplined for not notifying a supervisor before joining the pursuit. (The officer) stated he later resigned his commission with the Northwoods Police Department.”
Riverview’s police chief and mayor say they were not told about a possible excessive force investigation but remain confident that if there’s anything to it, they’ll be notified and take appropriate action at that time.
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