The owner of a gay bar in St. Louis was arrested after a police SUV crashed into the front of his establishment shortly after 12:30 a.m. Monday night. When one of the owners, James Pence, came downstairs to see what had happened (the owners live upstairs), police demanded to see his ID. When he refused, he was handcuffed but released later. The other owner, Chad Morris, was recording video of the damage, and the police reportedly demanded he stop. Morris says they reached for his phone, and he pulled it away. That’s when the officer accused him of “felony assault” and arrested him. https://twitter.com/sarahfenske/status/1737094613649772793 From the River Front Times:
A bystander captured video of the incident wherein an officer says one owner of the bar, Chad Morris, was arrested because he yelled at the officer.
“This is embarrassing for the police department,” says Javad Khazaeli, the attorney for Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris. Khazaeli says there are multiple videos of the collision and its aftermath that tell a different story than the one police are alleging and show that Morris’ arrest was unwarranted.
At one point, the person filming the video asks what crime has been committed. An unidentified St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer responds, “a disturbance.”
The officer then walks toward the person taking the video and says, “He’s not going to yell at me, that’s causing a disturbance.”
The lawyer for the couple, Javad Khazaeli, says the videos show Morris never touched the officer. Here’s one video showing the crash. https://twitter.com/javadesq/status/1737152152991051783 https://twitter.com/javadesq/status/1737152156715581460 Initially, one officer claimed he swerved to avoid a dog in the street. Hours later, the story changed with the officer saying he was trying to avoid hitting a parked car. Did I mention that, according to reports, the officer driving has been on the force less than a year? The local FOX affiliate has asked St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department if the officers involved in the crash were tested for impairment, why the story changed, and whether an independent outside agency would investigate this crash. No word from the https://youtu.be/PZWM5DE5xbE?si=zvrPvVPpWsJ86C30 https://twitter.com/TizzyEnt/status/1737174024432570459
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