ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Video posted to social media on Thursday night showed St. Louis Alderman Brandon Bosley (D-3rd Ward) confront and threaten to shoot a woman as she lay on the ground in sub-zero temperatures.
According to Bosley, he began recording the video moments after he called 911 to report he was the victim of an attempted carjacking near the BP gas station at Madison Street and North Florissant Avenue in the St. Louis Place neighborhood.
Police confirmed Friday the woman was charged with attempted robbery and armed criminal action.
"I just want you all to know, this ain't no different from what you go through," Bosley told his followers in a post that has been seen more than 1,600 times.
In the video, the alderman suggests another person in a white sedan may have been working with the woman to try and steal cars, though that person never appears in his video. Other comments from their exchange suggest she may have been trying to get into a home and out of the dangerous cold.
5 On Your Side has bleep censored the profane language and blurred the woman's face in the video below.
Bosley, who faces the voters in a re-election bid next April, turned his car around and drove back toward the woman and began swearing at her.
Bosley told 5 On Your Side Friday he stayed in the area to make sure police arrested her so she wouldn't try to rob someone else. He said he knows there was profane language in the video but he was afraid for his life so it wasn't an issue to him in the moment.
At one point, Bosley acknowledged his anger during the tense exchange.
"Let me calm down," he said to himself. "I'm bothered like a [expletive]."
"Do you have a gun," he asked the woman, "Because I got one on me too. I swear to God, if you pull it I'm gonna blow your [expletive] head off."
Bosley's brandished handgun is clearly visible at several points in the video he posted, including when he gets out of his car and confronts the woman.
“I pulled my weapon when I was walking back to my vehicle. You never saw me walk up with her with a gun,” Bosley told 5 On Your Side.
He told her he would try to help her if she was unarmed, but also angrily accused her of trying to rob him. He eventually went back to his car and waited for police to arrive after she told him not to touch her.
Bosley told 5 On Your Side Friday he did not point the weapon at the woman and had no intention of hurting her.
In the Facebook live stream video, Bosley told police the woman had approached him in his car and threatened to shoot him if he didn't give her his car keys, though he acknowledged he never actually saw a gun on the woman. At one point, Bosley claims someone struck the woman with a vehicle, but the video doesn’t appear to show it on screen.
A storm brought arctic temperatures to the St. Louis area Thursday night, and at 9:26 p.m., when the live video was recorded, it was about -5 degrees.
Police officers questioned Bosley and the woman separately before the alderman stopped recording the video.
Officers took the 40-year-old woman into custody, according to an incident report, which said she was carrying a knife. Police say their investigation remains ongoing.
“I would have tried to de-escalate the situation,” said 78th District State Representative Rasheen Aldridge.
Bosley is expected to face off against incumbent James Page and Aldridge in the upcoming election for the newly redrawn 14th ward in the spring.
“I think there were moments in that situation instead of going back to the scene, he could have stayed away, a little distance away until police got there, and, not necessarily antagonize the lady,” said Aldridge.
“I wasn’t angry. I was scared. I’d asked my critics have they ever been robbed? I had an armed criminal in my face trying to take my life,” said Bosley.
5 On Your Side’s Robert Townsend reached out to Megan Green, the President of the St. Louis Board of Alderman, but as of Friday night he did not hear back.
Townsend also reached out to the mayor’s office. A spokesman for Mayor Tishaura Jones said she had no comment.
Townsend knocked on the door of the suspect’s apparent home, but no one was there.
Police are still investigating the incident.