ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The former St. Louis County police officer accused of firing gunshots and making threats at a Halloween event in Kirkwood had his bond reduced, but he will still be under 24-hour supervision after posting bail.
Matthew McCulloch's bond was reduced on Tuesday from $500,000 to $250,000 with 10% authorized, but Judge Elle Ribaudo said he must report to CenterPointe Psychiatric Hospital for in-patient treatment once bail is posted. Ribaudo said he must be placed in a locked unit with 24-hour supervision and must be on GPS monitoring.
McCulloch was charged with five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and one count each of unlawful use of a weapon and first-degree terrorist threat. Police said he fired shots at a Halloween event for elementary school students in Kirkwood.
McCulloch had been a St. Louis County police officer since 2017. He resigned shortly after the incident.
He is the son of former St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert "Bob" McCulloch and the nephew of St. Charles County Prosecutor Joe McCulloch.
At around 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, McCulloch began harassing people during a trunk-or-treat event for Tillman Elementary students on the North Kirkwood Middle School campus, court documents said. Hundreds of parents and children were there.
McCulloch "aggressively approached" several attendees and made statements such as "You are all going to die," according to the documents. At one point, he threatened a woman whose husband then pushed him in the chest and shoved him to the ground.
McCulloch fell "while surrounded by hundreds of children, stood up, pulled up his shirt to display a handgun and badge, then began firing his weapon in an upward direction approximately a dozen times while shouting that the attendees would die," according to court documents.
Matthew McCulloch’s attorney Brian Millikan entered a not-guilty plea in the days after the incident and said his client was in "urgent need of a mental health evaluation and treatment." In a motion filed in October to have McCulloch's bail reduced, Millikan wrote a condition of his client’s bail is to have a mental health evaluation completed. Millikan also noted McCulloch has no criminal history, no history of violence toward others and “with proper treatment, the Court can be assured he will pose no threat to the victims or the community at large,” according to the court filing.