Young police officer slain while alone on patrol in the West End
By Bill Beene Of the St. Louis American
By all accounts, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Norvelle T. Brown, who was shot to death last Wednesday – allegedly by a 15-year-old now in juvenile custody – is a martyr.
After graduating from Vashon High School in 2003 and considering a career as a lawyer, Brown focused more closely on his own community and decided to get into the trenches as a city police officer.
This was a courageous career choice, in a city rated “the most dangerous city in the nation” last year, when Brown earned his badge at the age of 21. A city with a notorious murder rate and where five police officers had been shot in the past two years.
The danger didn’t stop Brown. He even asked to patrol the neighborhood he grew up in, knowing as he did the ills that plague it and its significant contributions to the city’s crime rate.
But that’s the reason Brown chose to patrol the area: to make it a better, safer place. Brown took the challenge head on – even if it meant manning a police car alone, because of a lack of police officers due to the department’s marginal budget.
“By all accounts, Norvelle was a fantastic officer all around, so I am not concerned that because of his young age and experience he was ill-equipped to be out there by himself,” said Sgt. Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the St. Louis Police Officers Association.
“Our issue is that no officer should be out there by himself.”
Ahlbrand said that funding for the police department has deteriorated such that “less than one-third of patrols now have two officers.”
He said Brown’s death while on patrol alone will “certainly” renew the association’s agenda in bargaining with the City of St. Louis to staff the police department and police board more adequately.
“We need more cops,” Ahlbrand said. “We’re at the lowest manpower in history of the City.”
The area Brown patrolled alone, as a rookie, is called the West Side by street culture and is respected as one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Crime Summary by Neighborhood, since January of this year the area has seen eight murders, 49 robberies, 169 aggravated assaults, 140 burglaries – 744 total crimes that also include rape, larceny, auto-theft and arson.
Just a few months before his death, Brown and another officer (Michael Ehnes) on foot patrol interrupted an armed robbery in progress after being alerted by citizens, affecting an arrest.
And his crime fighting didn’t stop at patrolling the mean streets. Brown mentored at-risk youths in the area as a coach for the Police Athletic Association (PAL). Brown was doing his part to make sure those youngsters would learn to become better citizens instead of statistics.
Many of these statistics are rooted in poverty and inadequate education. According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Annual Dropout Rate 2002-2006, 1,160 African-American high school students dropped out last year. That is 13.3 percent of the demographic.
Of course, poor education begets lower economic status. Among the 50 states, Missouri has the 20th highest percentage of its total population living in poverty (13.3 percent) and the 18th highest percentage of children under 18 living in poverty (19.0 percent), according to 2005 American Community Survey.
Poverty’s first cousin is crime and incarceration. Last year, St. Louis reported 129 murders. Blacks, who only make up 11 percent of state population, comprised 45 percent of Missouri inmates. And two out of every three state prison inmates had not completed high school, according to Facts About Prisons and Prisoners: The Sentencing Project.
These are the kinds of statistics that Officer Brown was fighting when he drove into that dark alley in the 1600 block of Semple last Wednesday night to confront a group of young, black males.
At 9:45 p.m., the Homicide Department responded to 1609 Semple for an officer down. Brown used his department-issued radio and told the dispatcher he had been shot. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the rear of his upper left shoulder, which exited his chest area.
According to the police department, he was discovered by other officers north of 1608 Semple and conveyed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries at 10:53 p.m.
Another statistic: Ahlbrand says Missouri ranks third nationally in assaults against police officers, according to 2005 FBI statistics.
“Twenty out of every 100 officers in Missouri were assaulted in 2005,” Ahlbrand said.
And while some statistics say there are more black men in prison than in college, Brown opted out of higher education to serve, protect and better his community. Instead, Officer Brown is a statistic himself – another police officer killed in the line of duty, another young black male killed by another young black male.
Brown’s funeral was held Sunday at Circle of Life Church and he was buried Monday at Lake Charles Cemetery.
Meanwhile, the 15-year-old who allegedly killed him is currently in juvenile custody and may be on his way to prison if certified to stand trial as an adult.
