St. Louis County Police Officer Matthew McCulloch has been charged with 11 felonies, including four counts of child endangerment, five counts of armed criminal action, making a terroristic threat and unlawful use of a weapon.
The charges relate to a trunk or treat event at North Kirkwood Middle School on Sunday, October 16.
Matthew McCulloch was off duty at the time of the shooting. He is the son of former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch.
According to the probable cause statement from Kirkwood Police, McCulloch "aggressively approached numerous attendees at the event and made statements such as, 'you are all going to die.' The defendant was eventually shoved in the chest after threatening a witness and the witness's wife in this manner."
Police also say that McCulloch fell to the pavement in the center of the parking lot while surrounded by hundreds of children, stood up, pulled up his shirt to display a handgun and badge, then began firing his weapon in an upward direction approximately a dozen times while shouting that the attendees would die.The incident happened a little before 5 p.m. Sunday at North Kirkwood Middle School. According to the initial statement put out by the Kirkwood School District, a trunk or treat attendee was "causing a disturbance." That person, now identified as Matthew McCulloch, allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired it multiple times into the air.
One witness told the Webster-Kirkwood Times that the shooter "looked completely deranged. The guy just stood there and fired five shots up into the air with this really welcoming, strange, overly big smile on his face and a blank stare."
The shooter was then tackled by other attendees and police took him into custody.
According to records for the St. Louis County jail, a man named Matthew McCulloch was arrested at 4:42 p.m. yesterday and is currently in jail. McCulloch's name also appears on the roster for the St. Louis County Police, according to state Peace Officer Standards and Training Program records.
St. Louis County Police did not respond to the RFT's query about whether the man arrested named Matthew McCulloch was the same McCulloch who works for the department.
However, in a statement, the department said, "We were contacted by Kirkwood Police Department regarding one of our off-duty police officers being involved in an incident in the City of Kirkwood on Sunday, October 15, 2023. The officer was arrested and is on administrative leave at this time. Kirkwood Police Department is conducting an investigation. All questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the Kirkwood Police Department."
Around 2 p.m., the family of former Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch released a statement acknowledging their son was "involved in an incident at North Kirkwood Middle School in which several shots were fired in the air."
It continued, "Please know that we will be eternally grateful that no one was physically injured. However, we also a painfully aware [sic] that an incident such as this can and does cause significant trauma to those, especially children and their parents, who witness such an event. Our thoughts and prayers are with those victims.
"This incident has had an incredible emotional impact on so many people, including our family. We are also confident that the Kirkwood Police Department will conduct a complete and thorough investigation and we ask that the public and the media be patient while the investigation continues. We will have no further statement."
Kirkwood Police have not responded to our messages seeking comment.
According to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell's office, the case will be handled by his office's Conviction and Incident Review Unit, an independent unit formed by Bell formed in order to handle cases involving police officers and other public figures.
Editor's note: This post was updated at noon to include a statement from St. Louis County Police and from the McCulloch family. We also subsequently updated our story to include the charges filed against Matthew McCulloch.
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