Thaddeus McCarroll, 23, was shot and killed by officers from the St. Louis County Police Tactical Operations Unit in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 18.
He rushed police, allegedly armed with a dagger, following more than three hours of negotiations with officers from the Tactical unit and Jennings Precinct.
McCarroll was shot and killed outside his mother’s home in the 9200 Block of Riverwood Drive in Jennings.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said McCarroll came out of the house “with a Bible in one hand and a dagger in the other.”
One Tactical officer wore a body camera, which captured mostly audio of the fatal incident, since the view was blocked. It recorded several calls for McCarroll to drop the knife. When McCarroll tells them he wants them to leave his house, police respond they can’t do that while he is in that condition.
Officers from the Jennings Precinct were first called to the home at 9:21 p.m. Friday night by McCarroll’s mother. Police said she wanted her son “removed from her residence due to his behavior, which she stated was not normal.” She told officers on the scene that her son had locked her out of the house and was armed with a knife.
“My guys backed out and tried to talk with him,” Captain Jeff Fuesting, commander of the Jennings Precinct, told The American. “They brought up this person’s mentor and tried to have him talk reason with the person, but that didn’t work out. When Mr. McCarroll started not to want to comply or engage, and officers saw he was armed, we had to call in the Tactical Unit.”
Belmar said Tactical was called at 10:30 p.m. and on the scene by 11 p.m. After “at least an hour of negotiations while he was in the house,” Belmar said, McCarroll came out on the porch at 12:55 a.m. armed with knife.
“They hoped to get him to drop the knife and get the opportunity to go hands-on,” Belmar said. “They were ready to go hands-on.”
After McCarroll did not drop the knife, Belmar said a Tactical officer shot McCarroll with a less-lethal rubber round in his right thigh, hoping to disarm him.
“After the impact round, he almost immediately charged, within perhaps a car length, and was engaged with gunfire,” Belmar said.
Less than four minutes elapsed from the time McCarroll left the house until he allegedly rushed police with the knife and was shot. On the body cam audio, there is an immediate call for medical attention, but McCarroll died at the scene.
Robert Parson, an attorney who has defended McCarroll, said “he always seemed like someone who was nice and mannerable.”
He said McCarroll had a “pretty close relationship with Ms. McCarroll, who was not his biological mother. He was adopted at a young age.”
Both Belmar and Fuesting said that McCarroll was dealing with mental health issues, but Parson said he did not find that to be the case when he defended McCarroll against 2nd degree burglary charges filed in 2012. McCarroll was free on supervised probation, according to court records, at the time of his death.
“He was competent enough to make plea agreements in court, or I would have brought those issues up with the court,” Parson said.
“He seemed like someone who had made some youthful mistakes, but could get by if he stayed on focus. He was someone who needed the right direction, and his mother was trying to give him some support.”
Tiffany Anderson, superintendent of Jennings School District, told The American that McCarroll attended classes in the district in 2009-10. She planned to meet with family today.
Fuesting, the commander in Jennings, said his officers “used every option they had as patrol officers on the street and kept it peaceful” before calling in Tactical.
Their hour-plus of negotiation with Carroll before Tactical took over was not recorded, Fuesting said, because his precinct returned the body cameras issued them after they were found to be defective. They are waiting for replacements, he said.
“I believe in those cameras,” Fuesting told The American. “They are so crucial.”
Belmar said he was grateful for what evidence the Tactical officer’s body camera provided. “I have 75 of these cameras,” Belmar said. “I probably need 600.”
The Ferguson protest community learned of the incident Saturday morning and were catching up by watching the body cam footage and reading police statements.
Veteran front-line Ferguson protestor Tony Rice told The American that the Tactical unit seemed ready to escalate from the moment McCarroll steps out of the house, which is when the body cam footage released on Saturday begins.
“If you are prepared to kill him, why not shoot him [with a lethal round] in the leg sooner and drop him,” Rice told The American. “Why wait until he is right up on you and you feel the need to shoot to kill?”
Fuesting took command in Jennings in March 2011, when the City of Jennings contracted with St. Louis County Police after disbanding its police department, which had been plagued with charges of racism and use of excessive force. Notoriously, Darren Wilson served in the Jennings Police Department before it disbanded and he was hired by the Ferguson Police Department.
Fuesting told The American his approach in Jennings is two-pronged: hot-spot policing to put maximum enforcement effort where it is most needed, and community policing to build respect and trust in the community.
Fuesting said the McCarrolls’ neighborhood is “fairly quiet” and not a hot spot for police.
Though he was no longer in command at the time of the fatal shooting of McCarroll and the Tactical Unit was managing the scene, Fuesting knows this tragedy is a major setback for his community policing efforts in Jennings.
“I’ve got some challenges ahead of me,” Fuesting said. “I am willing to have a dialogue about this incident with anybody.”
Body cam footage of final minutes of the encounter:
Follow this reporter on Twitter @chriskingstl.
