ST. LOUIS — One of the three Lake St. Louis police officers injured in a crash on Interstate 70 back in March was released from the hospital Tuesday and headed home to finish healing.
According to a Twitter post from Lake St. Louis Police Tuesday afternoon, Officer Kyle Case was greeted by hospital staff, who clapped their hands in support of his recovery, as he walked down the hallway and headed home almost three weeks following the crash.
“I am positive he will be happy to sleep in his own bed tonight,” Lake St. Louis Police said in the post. “Keep healing officer — that’s an order!”
Chief Chris DiGuiseppi with Lake St. Louis police said last month that one other officer was released from the hospital. There has been no update released on the condition of the third officer.
A police K-9 named Bach was also injured in the crash but was released from the veterinary hospital last month as well.
Two St. Charles County officers were also injured in the crash. In a Facebook post weeks ago, the department said the St. Charles County officers suffered minor injuries and were released from the hospital.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, five officers suffered injuries and three patrol cars were damaged after being hit by a car that failed to move over for the police vehicles on March 29 on eastbound I-70 at Interstate 270.
The man police said was driving that vehicle, 31-year-old Matthew Jones, has been charged in connection with the crash. Jones was charged with five counts of DWI resulting in serious injury of law enforcement personnel, endangering the welfare of a child and failure to yield to emergency vehicles.
A crash report from MSHP said the three patrol cars had the emergency lights activated when the suspect crashed into the back of one of the vehicles, causing it to spin and hit the other patrol cars and two officers who were outside of them. One of the officers was ejected from the driver's seat of their vehicle.