ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A grand jury indicted two Velda City police officers Wednesday for shooting a man after pulling him over for a traffic stop in February.
The grand jury charged officers Christopher Gage and Matthew Schanz with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
On Feb. 25, Gage and Schanz pulled the man over on Octavia near West Florissant for having expired temporary tags. During the traffic stop, the officers said they smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle, according to a probable cause statement. Gage told the driver that they intended to search the car without cause and to arrest him if they found drugs.
The driver drove off.
According to a press release from Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, Schanz falsely reported over his police radio that the driver tried to run him over. The driver turned around at the end of the dead-end street.
Shanz walked into the center of the road into the path of the oncoming car and yelled at the driver to stop, the probable cause statement said.
Shanz fired his gun multiple times into the man's car, as the car approached him and then as it passed. Gage then fired his gun multiple times into the man's car.
The man suffered serious injuries but survived, according to a press release from St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell's office.
“We will continue working on behalf of the community and ensuring that no one is above the law,” Bell said in the release. “We will now begin the process of preparing this case for trial.”
The case is being prosecuted by the Conviction and Incident Review Unit, an independent unit within the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office formed to investigate and prosecute official misconduct, including excessive force by police officers.
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