ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — While one mother is thanking an off-duty St. Louis sheriff’s deputy for saving her son’s life, another mother is wondering if he had to kill hers to do so.
It happened Monday morning in north St. Louis County while a man and his grandson were waiting for their food in a McDonald’s drive-thru just before 7 a.m.
Suddenly a man, later identified by police as William Burgess, 27, attacked them with a screwdriver as they sat in their truck, said Sara Buck, whose 10-year-old son and 67-year-old father were the victims. Police have not identified the weapon used in the crime.
After a struggle, Burgess took off with their truck. The victims ran. Then, police said Burgess made a U-turn and drove up onto the sidewalk where the victims were walking in the 11100 block of Bellefontaine Road.
Buck said her father pushed his grandson out of the way, but the truck struck his leg. The child took cover behind a tree.
The sheriff’s deputy was in uniform and on his way to work when he stopped and ran after Burgess, according to police.
Two St. Louis County officers in the area stopped to help the victims, and heard a single gunshot come from between two nearby houses.
Burgess was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police found the weapon near the truck, not where Burgess was shot.
His mother, Erinn Wicks, 46, said she was shocked when detectives told her what her son did.
“I was overwhelmed,” she said. “I’ve never known him to do anything like that. My sympathy went out to the victims because I know that was really scary for them and I’m glad they’re OK.”
Wicks said Burgess was the second oldest of her five children and he struggled with heroin addiction. He had plans to go to rehab the day he was killed.
The day before he died, Wicks said he apologized for all he had put her through and promised to go to rehab and get better. He was charged with drug possession earlier this year, but doesn’t have any criminal convictions on his record.
Wicks said her son was paranoid, and was convinced the police were after him. He told her they were using drones to track him and pointing red lasers at him.
Still, she said, she’s never known him to be violent.
She’s struggling with knowing he was unarmed when he was shot in the chest.
“I want to know what happened behind the building that caused him to shoot my son,” she said. “He should have went to jail for what he did. I don’t condone crime or carjackings, but I also feel like he should have been punished for what he did. He didn’t deserve to die for what he did."
“You put yourself in danger without back up, he should have waited for the police.”
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell's office is now reviewing the case, as is common with every officer-involved shooting.
To Sara Buck, the deputy is a hero.
“Everyone riots over the police, but this officer, I’m thanking God for because they might not be here if he did not intervene,” Sara Buck said. “Whoever this officer is, he needs to be thanked.
“Anything that happens, the officer is always at fault and everyone always says the police are never there when you need them, but he absolutely was and I wish people would see that and not think that every police officer is corrupt and trying to take everyone out. That’s not the case at all. They’re the only thing standing between us and chaos.”
Still, Buck said she understands Wicks’ pain as a mother.
“I feel for her, and I know that she said her son was on heroin and I do feel for her about that,” she said. “But I am a mother and her son tried to kill my father and my son. This was justice absolutely served.”
Buck said doctors have told her father that it could take at least three months before he walks again, and that the nerve pain he is feeling is going to be permanent. He’s had one surgery so far, and was released from the hospital Wednesday.
Her son’s wounds from the attack aren’t as visible.
Buck said his father, James Buck, was killed in a carjacking on the city’s north side in 2014 when her son was only four years old. His killer, Joseph Davis, ran over him with his truck.
Police said at the time Buck and Davis were arguing over a stolen gun and cellphone, but Sara Buck said her former husband did not know Davis, who is now in prison for the murder.
Now, she said her son is terrified of every noise he hears.
And she is, too.
“It's not that he attacked my dad and he just wanted the vehicle,” she said. “It was beyond the vehicle. It wasn't about the vehicle."
“It was about killing them, and I have no idea why.”
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