Jason Flanery resigned from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department on December 19 after his vehicle was traced to the scene of an accident where the driver fled, a senior police source confirmed to The St. Louis American.
The senior police source said that a search warrant was obtained to draw blood from Flanery to see if he was intoxicated when involved in the alleged accident in southwest St. Louis.
Flanery shot and killed VonDerrit Myers Jr. on October 8, 2014, but was not charged with any crime by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. Several witnesses told police that Myers and Flanery were involved in a gunfight, and police claimed to retrieve a firearm from Myers’ corpse along with several bullets and casings that matched the weapon.
Flanery later caused a stir when he worked the protest following the fatal police shooting of Mansur Ball-Bey on August 19 of this year.
A rank-and-file police source told The American that Flanery had struggled since the fatal shooting of Myers and speculated that Flanery may have turned to alcohol for solace.
A call to Neil Bruntrager, attorney for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, was not immediately returned.
Flanery was working a shift for GCI Security when he killed Myers. Someone who answered the phone at GCI on December 19 said she could not confirm whether Flanery was still employed there.
Flanery, who graduated from the police academy in 2008, was 31 at the time he killed Myers, according to Joyce’s report. He had a previous misdemeanor conviction for unlawful use of a weapon in 2001.
This story will be updated with more official information when it is released or if Flanery’s attorney denies any accusations of wrongdoing.
Update: Joyce told The American she will review property damage and toxicology results before deciding on charges against Flanery.
