New Video Shows Florissant Detective Ram Man With SUV Before Beating
The attorneys for the twenty-year-old man hit by and SUV driven by then-Florissant police Detective Joshua Smith released a second Ring porch video Tuesday.
This angle offers a more direct view of the collision. Smith is seen driving across a lawn to ram his unmarked police vehicle into the man, who then tries to hobble away on a badly injured leg before tumbling into the grass. Smith is then shown punching and kicking the man as he lays helpless on the ground, screaming in pain.
Jerryl Christmas, one of the attorneys representing the injured man, is calling for Smith, who was fired last week, to be charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The man who was hit suffered a compound fracture of his left shin, his broken bone sticking through the skin, Christmas says.
Christmas and law partner Jermaine Wooten, in a press release, say they obtained the second Ring video after conducting their own independent investigation of the incident, which occurred in the early morning hours of June 2 in the 9800 block of Eastdell Avenue in Dellwood.
The second video shows that the three Florissant Police detectives involved in the incident "must be held accountable," Christmas and Wooten say in their release, adding, "The video is sufficient evidence to immediately charge Joshua Smith with Assault 1st Degree and Armed Criminal Action."
"The video also completely contradicts Joshua Smith's attorney Scott Rosenblum's statement of this 'simply being an accident.' Further investigation into the totality of the actions of the other two detectives could warrant charges as well," say Christmas and Wooten.
Christmas is calling on Tim Lohmar, the St. Charles County prosecutor, to make a decision soon in the case. Lohmar is handling the case after Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County prosecutor, announced that a close relative of a staff member was present during the incident.
"The thing that is so frustrating is that everything changes when it's the police," Christmas says. " If it were you and I, we'd be already charged. They don't need all the evidence to charge. A lot of times they charge cases on notes. They don't even have the police report. But when dealing with police, every 'i' has to be dotted, every 't' has to be crossed. And Joe Public, we don't get that same consideration."
Smith's decision to use his police department SUV as a weapon violated the department's policies and procedures, Christmas says.
Christmas says he's talked to police officers in other jurisdictions. "And no officer has told me where they've ever been trained to use their vehicle as a weapon to strike someone," Christmas says. "That's not part of law enforcement training, to strike someone with your vehicle."
In the two weeks since the incident occurred, Florissant Police Chief Timothy Fagan fired Smith and suspended two other detectives with him that night. But so far no charges have been filed against any of them.
Protesters led by the group Expect US have for more than a week staged gatherings in front of the city's police headquarters and in front of the nearby house of Mayor Tim Lowery, the city's former police chief.
Meanwhile, the twenty-year-old man hit by the SUV is recovering at home from surgery and enduring severe pain and psychological trauma, Christmas says.
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