Updated on August 21 at 4:30 p.m. with comments from the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Lorenzo Johnson, a Berkeley, Mo. resident and former Atlanta police officer, was driving home at about 9:30 p.m. on August 10 when he saw a St. Louis County Police vehicle chasing at high speed a car down Airport Road with its lights flashing. Johnson was going the opposite direction and had just turned on his street of Whitewater Drive when he heard a huge crash across the street.
He jumped out of his car and ran to the scene of the accident at Airport Road and Tyndall Drive, where two African-American men had driven into a tree and had clearly died on impact, he said. The men were later identified as 59-year-old Townsal Woolfolk and 49-year-old Mikel Neil.
The St. Louis County police car was nowhere to be seen, and St. Louis County police didn’t arrive on scene while Johnson was present – which was about 45 minutes, Johnson said. Looking at the crashed car, Johnson could also tell that the vehicle had gone into a “spin out.”
“You can tell the vehicle was hit on the rear end and made to go into a spin and that caused the vehicle to go out of control,” Johnson said.
Although Johnson was present and willing, no law enforcement agent asked for his statement. A woman in her 20s who saw the entire accident gave a statement to Berkeley Police and the Missouri Highway Patrol that the county police car hit the vehicle before it crashed, Johnson said. He knows because he stayed with her on the scene. The woman also told them that the St. Louis County Police had been chasing the vehicle.
It goes against county police’s policy to pursue a vehicle if a felony has not been committed. Until the surrounding community started raising questions last week, the St. Louis County Police had consistently told the media that there was no high-speed pursuit of the vehicle.
St. Louis County Police told the St. Louis American that their officers from the Central County Precinct attempted a traffic stop of a vehicle for violating a red light signal at the intersection of Airport Road and Dade.
“The vehicle fled from the attempted traffic stop and crashed shortly thereafter, resulting in a fatal accident at Airport Road and Tyndall Drive,” a police spokesman said.
On August 17, Sergeant Shawn McGuire, a spokesman for the county police, stated in an email to the American that they cannot comment on the case while the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s investigation into the incident is underway. And they have also initiated an internal investigation into the police officers’ actions that night.
However, on August 16, McGuire told KTVI Fox 2 that, “There was never a chase.” The American spoke with McGuire on August 20 and asked about his statement to KTVI Fox 2.
“At the time, we were told there wasn’t a pursuit,” McGuire responded. “That was based on what our officers said, based on our quick internal investigation. Then as the week went on, our chief just basically took a look at the situation and said it’s not going to hurt if we just open up an internal investigation and do further investigating on our officers.”
Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Dallas Thompson said the investigation includes looking into whether or not the car was struck by the St. Louis County Police vehicle or any other vehicle before it crashed.
“We are working well with the family to get to the bottom of the incident,” Thompson said.
The victims’ family members and community leaders held a press conference on August 16 at the site of the accident and said they are starting their own investigation.
“I was here Saturday when I got the bad news in the morning,” said Clara Cheeks, mother of Mikel Neil. “I came here and I said, ‘This does not look like a fatal one-car accident.’ I plan to get to the bottom of it. I’m not going to stop. I’m asking my God to give me strength.”
On August 20, Mikel’s older brother, Darryl Neil, showed the American a video from a business that was three streets or 0.3 miles away from the crash on Airport Road. In the video, a police car is clearly chasing another vehicle.
KTVI Fox 2 shared the video with St. Louis County Police Monday, said McGuire who briefly watched it on his cell phone.
“It’s clear that these officers are attempting to stop this vehicle,” McGuire said. “What’s not clear is whether they were in pursuit of the vehicle or not because we don’t have a time frame of how long this happened.”
At the time of the accident, Johnson said that he spoke with 911 dispatcher and stated, “A St. Louis County officer was involved but yet he kept going.”
On August 16, McGuire told KTVI Fox 2 that this was not the case and that the county police were the first responders. However, Johnson said that it took Berkeley Police and the Berkeley Fire Department 20 minutes to arrive at the scene, but it was not the county police.
McGuire told the American on August 20 that, “We did go back to the scene. I know that for a fact, maybe not right way, because Highway Patrol called us 45 minutes after the accident. Our commander with those two same officers went back to the scene.”
Johnson said while he was at the scene, he heard Berkeley officers say that they didn’t hear about the chase because the call never came over the radio. Since the incident was in Berkeley, that police department should have been contacted, he said.
“There was never call for dispatch, even though he was in pursuit,” Johnson said. “That pursuit was never called in.”
At the press conference, the family questioned why the Missouri Highway Patrol only took one statement at the crime scene. Trooper Dallas Thompson said no other witnesses wanted to go on record.
“We weren’t trying to hide anything,” Thompson said. “We did not know who the witnesses were at that time.”
When asked why investigators had not reached out to Johnson – who identified himself on the 911 dispatch call – Thompson said that they had not yet obtained the 911 tapes.
Mikel had six older siblings – mainly brothers – and his tight-knit family came out to the press conference. Mikel’s mother was active in the Universal African People’s Organization, which organized the event.
“We feel what happened tragically Friday is a reflection of critical issues that’s impacting our community,” said Zaki Baruti, a leader of the Universal African People’s Organization. “Who patrols our community? Where do those officers live? Too many times, you have people coming from outside our community who don’t give a damn about our community.”
Mikel was the baby of the family, his mother said, and was much loved by everyone. Mikel’s mother and other community members said they are deeply disheartened that the county police drove by the accident and didn’t stop – from what witnesses have said.
“No one deserves what they did to my child and the other young man,” Cheeks said. “You saw them have the accident. You leave them without getting out of your vehicle to assist them. If it was just an accident, why didn’t you get out? Why didn’t you get out and help these two young men?”
