The Riverfront Times has obtained video of a St. Louis Police SUV swerving on South Broadway and into Bar:PM.
The video, taken around 12:30 a.m. Monday by a security camera on the opposite side of the street as the bar, shows the cruiser appearing to travel at a high rate of speed. It then veers past the side of a parked car — one that it didn't appear to be in any danger of hitting — and careens across two wide-open lanes and into the LGBTQ establishment.
The collision has developed into a national news story in the past day because after St. Louis police crashed their SUV into the bar, they arrested its co-owner for felony assault.
Watch the video below:
"This is embarrassing for the police department," says Javad Khazaeli, the attorney for Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris.
Khazaeli says that this video — as well as another, longer one taken by a bystander — contradicts the police narrative. The driver claimed to have swerved to avoid hitting a parked car and then police claimed that Morris later assaulted an officer.
Morris, who has been in jail since early Monday morning, is set to be released on his own recognizance later today.
In a brief statement to media outlets this morning — the first made to the RFT about the incident after several requests, the police department said this: "Relative to the below incident, 37-year-old Chad Morris was charged with Assault 3rd – Special Victim and Resisting/Interfering with Arrest. A booking photo is attached.
"All further inquiries must be directed to the Circuit Attorney's Office."
COURTESY BAR:PM STAFF
The scene at Bar:PM in the wee hours of Monday morning.
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