Posted on 01/31/2004 5:17:04 PM PST by patriotUSA
Search of suspect leads to officer's killing By Jeremy Kohler And Shane Graber Post-Dispatch 01/30/2004
A suspected drug dealer, apparently bent on escaping from two officers on a neighborhood patrol, shot both Friday afternoon, killing one and then falling dead from return fire, police said.
Officer Nicholas Sloan, 24, shot with his own pistol, became the 154th member of the St. Louis police to die in the line of duty. He was the first to die in a shooting since Chief Joe Mokwa demanded that all personnel wear bulletproof vests on duty.
Mokwa said a slug penetrated the edge of Sloan's vest but missed its protective plates, striking Sloan in the shoulder and veering through his heart. The stricken officer staggered a short distance into the Seven Twenty Five Liquor Mart, at 725 North Taylor Avenue, and collapsed.
Returning fire
Shots hit Sloan's partner, Gabriel Keithley, 26, in the hip, below the vest, and shoulder, above its protection. But Keithley still managed to fire back.
The mortally injured gunman, Dennis E. Hathorn, 31, of Centreville, walked about 200 yards and collapsed between two cars in the 4400 block of Enright Avenue. With him, police said they found Sloan's gun and several rocks of crack cocaine.
"This is an extreme tragedy for the department and for all law-abiding citizens in the city of St. Louis," Mayor Francis Slay said outside Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where Keithley was in surgery and expected to survive. "We are proud of them. We will not forget Officer Sloan, who gave his life for the citizens of St. Louis. We are grieving for you."
Mokwa struggled to keep his composure in publicly announcing the death of Sloan, the father of a 13-month-old child and son of police Sgt. Terry Sloan, a 31-year veteran who commands the vice squad.
Nicholas Sloan and Keithley joined the department in 2001.
In October 2002, Mokwa ordered all city officers to wear bulletproof vests, after a seventh shooting incident involving police in three months. On Friday, he lamented that the policy could not save Sloan.
"You can only wear so much body armor," Mokwa said. "Police officers are mortal. When it's your time to go, nothing can save you."
Sloan and Keithley were in plain clothes, working as part of Operation Weed and Seed, which targets selected neighborhoods with the aim of clearing out drug dealing and nuisance crimes and helping to restore the vitality of communities.
Apparent drug sale
Mokwa said witnesses told of seeing a man who appeared to be dealing drugs from a car to a pedestrian near Taylor and Enright avenues about 12:50 p.m. The apparent buyer walked away, and the officers approached the car.
The chief said detectives were told the man got out and was being frisked when a violent confrontation erupted. He grabbed Sloan's pistol and opened fire, and Keithley shot back.
Patrol cars blocked off side streets for ambulances rushing Sloan and Keithley to Barnes. At least 100 officers, many of high rank and some crying, gathered at the hospital. Police arrived with Sloan's girlfriend and child, and Keithley's wife.
A woman standing just outside the emergency room lobby screamed and slammed her hand against a wall over and over as officers tried to comfort her.
At the shooting scene, scores of heavily armed police searched for what they thought could be more suspects until details of what happened became clearer. Helicopters from TV stations and St. Louis County police hovered overhead.
Kim Norman, director of the Weed and Seed unit, said Sloan and Keithley worked in an aggressive squad that always wanted to do more.
"These two officers have been doing extraordinary work," Norman said.
Other fatalities
Before Friday, the two most recent line-of-duty deaths of city officers involved traffic collisions.
Last spring, Officer James Branson died of complications from surgery to repair his broken ankle, almost a month after his patrol car collided with an SUV while chasing suspects in a stolen car. Branson's partner was critically injured.
Officer Michael Barwick was killed in August 2002 when his patrol car collided with a van while following a stolen car. Two other officers who worked to rescue Barwick and his injured partner from their burning car were injured.
The last city officer shot to death was Robert J. Stanze, killed in 2000 while arresting a suspect in the earlier wounding of a Berkeley officer. Harold R. Richardson is serving a life prison term without parole for murdering Stanze.
Heather Ratcliffe and Bill Bryan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Reporter Jeremy Kohler E-mail: jkohler@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-241-9435
Reporter Shane Graber E-mail: sgraber@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-340-8207
Face it.
The policeman was killed by a scumbag. The scumbag wasn't a scumbag because of the WoD, or because drugs are illegal. He was a scumbag because that is what he freely chose to become.
The only gun control that could have worked would be to ban cops from having guns: the slain officer was shot with his own weapon.
May God bless and keep your husband safe during every shift.
prayers for a cops family
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.