St. Louis police officer carried away in car as suspect attempts to flee
UPDATE: Police have identified the suspect as 25-year-old Lamontay Steward. Prosecutors have charged him with first-degree assault of an officer, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of armed criminal actions and several other felonies.
ST. LOUIS – In an attempt to stop a suspicious person early Wednesday morning, a St. Louis police officer found himself being carried away in a package thief’s getaway car.
The incident occurred around 3 a.m. near Pershing Avenue, just north of Forest Park. Police were searching for a suspicious person checking car handles in an apartment parking garage. Police found an individual of interest, who then fled to an SUV.
Surveillance video shows the suspect getting into the car, with one officer attempting to pull him out of the vehicle. In the next moment, the car can be seen driving away, with the officer still hanging out of the open driver door and the other police officer running on foot behind it all.
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The SUV traveled down Pershing Avenue for some distance before the officer was able to successfully turn the ignition off, according to officials.
Jim Whyte, director of the Central West End Neighborhood Security Initiative, said having cameras around the community has been effective in reducing crime.
“Once the police can identify and apprehend the person that’s responsible for crime, your crime’s gonna decrease; your crime’s gonna go down,” he said. “The cameras allow us to know exactly who we’re looking for (and) exactly what they did.”
The suspect was arrested and officers recovered the stolen packages that were inside the vehicle. The police officer was not injured in the incident.
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