Video shows brawl, fatal shooting outside downtown St. Louis bar

ST. LOUIS — A 90-second video outside a downtown St. Louis bar provides a glimpse of the brawl where an off-duty policeman fatally shot a man early Wednesday.

The officer works for a rural police department in Leadington, Missouri, about 60 miles south of St. Louis. He was working security at the Wheelhouse bar, about two blocks west of Busch Stadium, when he tried to break up a fight outside.

A video recorded on a cellphone by a bystander was released by Citizens for a Greater Downtown St. Louis on social media Thursday. The group did not say who took the video.

Most people are milling about, watching the fight. A group of six to 10 men are chasing after one man in the street. They tackle him to the ground, and an off-duty officer appears to try to break up the fight, pushing one man away and pointing at the men to leave.

The footage pans the crowd, from left to right. At one point in the video, someone is shouting what sounds like, "Drop it, drop it."

The video briefly focuses on another skirmish off to the right, then two shots are heard, and the camera pans back to where the officer stood.

"Oh," someone in the crowd exclaims. People in the street scatter.

One man wearing a black jacket marked "Police" is seen pointing a gun as he walks toward someone on the ground. Three more shots are heard. A man groans.

A half-dozen witnesses surround the injured man. A woman is wailing.

From that point on, the person taking the video is more concerned with a man on the sidewalk complaining he can't see because he was hit with pepper spray. 

At least three people in the crowd are wearing jackets marked "Police." None of the off-duty officers working security there was an employee of the St. Louis Police Department, officials said.

St. Louis police spokesman Mitch McCoy said the video appears to be authentic. Police are reviewing that and other evidence as part of their investigation. They have yet to identify the man who died or the officer who shot him.

McCoy said investigators recovered a gun that the dead man had.

The shooting was just before 3 a.m. Wednesday outside the bar, at 1000 Spruce Street.

The St. Louis Police Department's Force Investigative Unit is investigating the shooting. According to city police, at least one of the off-duty officers working security used pepper spray. And during the fight, a 25-year-old man pulled a gun, police said.

The Leadington officer told investigators that he ordered the man to drop his gun. The Leadington officer was not hurt.

The man he shot died at a hospital. Another man, 26, was apparently injured when a bullet grazed him, police said. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Leadington is a town with a population of 800 people in St. Francois County. Mayor Dustin McKinney said the officer who shot the man in St. Louis works part-time for the Leadington police force. The city is budgeted for five full-time officers but currently only has two full-time officers and a handful of part-timers.

The officer won't be back at work until the investigation is complete, McKinney said.

The town's police chief, Jerry Hicks, said he's confidant his officer acted properly.

"I'm positive that things are going to be okay," he said. "I have faith in my officer."

The officer has been with Leadington three years and was in law enforcement 15 years before that. "Community policing is one of his strongest points," Hicks said. "He's a good officer."

Hicks said it's normal for officers to travel far for secondary duties. Some drive 100 miles, he said, "because they're looking at anywhere from $25 to $!00 an hour" to work security for private companies.

The officer is "doing reasonably well. He was told to just kick back and rest and relax," the chief said. "Take it day by day."

Crime in Leadington is far different than the city of St. Louis. In that small town, officers generally work traffic enforcement, confiscate illegal drugs and respond to calls for thefts and break-ins, primarily on the weekends.

This is the first time any of the officers in Hicks' four-year career as chief has fired a weapon, on-duty or working security elsewhere, he said.

"That's the last thing our guys want to do, is pull that gun and pull that trigger," Hicks said. "None of us want to see that. Sometimes we have to make those split-second decisions."