ST. LOUIS — A 14- and 16-year-old who have been charged with shooting an off-duty St. Louis police officer have been released to their homes with location-tracking ankle bracelets.
Judge Barbara Peebles released the teens during a hearing in St. Louis Tuesday. The 14-year-old has been charged with first-degree assault and the 16-year-old has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon and interfering with arrest.
The first-degree assault charge automatically means the 14-year-old will have a hearing to determine whether he should be charged as an adult. Court spokesman Thom Gross said he was unsure when that hearing will take place.
St. Louis Police Officers Association President Jay Schroeder said the officer in this case was never told that the hearing was happening, and learned the juveniles had been released in a phone call after the hearing from a court administrator.
“It was surprising and disheartening that these two kids who shot this policeman were just released and told not to go back to the neighborhood who obviously have no regard for policemen let alone any human life,” Schroeder said. “It would be safer for the public if they were still in the juvenile facility.”
Gross said Peebles would not comment on the case.
He said administrators from the St. Louis City Family Court sent an email to the officer's police department account to notify him of an Aug. 5 status hearing, but it was blocked.
At the status hearing last week, the defense attorney for the 14-year-old made an oral motion asking Peebles to put them on house arrest and she granted the motion. Juvenile court administrators then called the police department to get the officer's home contact information, so he could be notified, Gross said.
Police say the victim, a 47-year-old officer with 24 years of service, was sitting in his car shortly before midnight Aug. 2 near North 10th Street and Convention Plaza wearing a tactical vest with the word “police” on it. He was sitting in an unmarked car working a security shift for a nearby bank.
The officer saw two juveniles approach him and made eye contact with them, looked away and looked back to see one of the teens running at him, police said. The 14-year-old fired shots into the officer’s car, but the officer did not return fire.
He drove to a different location, broadcast a description of the suspects. Responding officers found the teens and arrested them.