By Photographer Robert Cohen — Karen Wallensak of Catholic Charities appeals to park rangers and sanitation workers to allow a homeless man to recover his belongings from their truck after makeshift homeless living quarters in Interco Plaza were cleared Thursday morning. The small plaza is at the intersection of Tucker Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

UPDATED: 5:32 P.M. Thursday

ST. LOUIS — Shortly after 5 p.m. today, a city official called to apologize for what he characterized as a “disturbing” display of disrespect for homeless people who had been camping in a small park near the St. Patrick’s Center for the homeless.

“I was just absolutely devastated to hear what happened this morning,” said Bill Siedhoff, director of the department of human services. Siedhoff was speaking on behalf of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and the city, itself.

Siedhoff said that the park rangers were out of line to destroy all of the belongings of the homeless who were camped in Interco Park at Tucker Boulevard and Martin Luther King Boulevard. The city has set up a protocol that homeless people are notified that they are breaking the city’s 10 p.m. curfew if they are sleeping in the park.

Also, Siedhoff said, the protocol requires that anything cleared from a park is taken to the city’s health department on 13th Street in downtown St. Louis and the city workers do their best to contact the homeless and to not destroy their belongings.

“There is a protocol to be followed when things are left in parks,” Siedhoff said, “We have a protocol that clearly was not followed in this case. All I can say is, we screwed up.”

Siedhoff was referring the destruction at 10 a.m. today of the belongings of the homeless by St. Louis park rangers.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, the rangers arrived at Interco Plaza, next to the building housing the St. Patrick’s and the Catholic Charities outreach centers. And, quickly the rangers took tents, blankets, pillows, bags filled with belongings and, even, prescription medications and threw them into an orange garbage truck.

The rangers would not say why they were throwing away the homeless people’s possessions. St. Louis Parks Division Commissioner Daniel W. Skillman, who oversees the rangers, did not return a reporter’s call asking for comment.

Clint Smith, 38 and homeless, rode up on his bicycle begging the rangers to give him his belongings back. Instead, the rangers turned on the device in the truck that crushed everything that Smith owned. He was only able to save an umbrella.

“Oh, man,” Smith said to the rangers. “That was my medicine. That was my stuff. Oh, man. What a waste.”

Included in his belongings were heart and lung medicines.

About a dozen homeless men and women had set up camp a few months ago in the little park at Martin Luther King Drive and Tucker Boulevard after homeless shelters began turning people away.

“Several were staying here because, on any given day, we have more people seeking shelter than there are beds,” said Karen Wallensak, who works for Catholic Charities’ Housing Resource Center in the building next door.

“These people have never caused a problem,” Wallensak said.

About 10 a.m., she said she looked out of her office window and saw what the rangers were doing, then ran outside to try to stop them. She tried to make the rangers give her and her co-workers the belongings to hold on to for the homeless. The rangers refused.

“We are in the shadow of the city’s two biggest homeless providers,” Wallensak said as she grabbed a few garbage bags the rangers had left behind. “They say this is public, not private property, but when people have nowhere to go, what are they supposed to do?”

Erin Ives, who also works at Catholic Charities, came out to try to persuade the rangers to stop. They ignored her, too.

“I’m appalled,” Ives said. “All they had to do was pick up a phone or walk in our door and let us take possession of this stuff. This could have all been avoided.”

Ives and Wallensak took the homeless men into their building to replace as much of their destroyed belongings as possible, especially their medicine. That meant that donations and funds including public grants paid by taxpayers will have to pay for the same things twice.

“Now, we have to drop everything we were doing and figure out who lost what and try to replace it,” Wallensak said.

Tremayne Gates, 29, a homeless man who preaches the gospel at the homeless camp, came out of St. Patrick’s, where he was taking a class, to find that everything — including his tent — had been destroyed.

“I can’t replace what was taken,” Gates said. “It might not look like much to someone else, but these were priceless items to us. It protects us from the cold and the elements.”

Siedhoff said that the mayor had nothing to do with the destruction of the property. Siedhoff said he would be investigating to find out why it was done and who ordered it. He said that in no way should the park rangers have taken a truck with a compactor and smashed the belongings in front of the homeless and their advocates. He said it is protocol for any city employee to take a regular truck and take the belongings to the city office so that the homeless owners can claim them.

“The protocol was totally ignored and that is appalling; it should have never happened,” Siedhoff said, adding that the protocol will be reviewed to find out if it can be improved. “This is just really beyond belief. We apologize.”