JENNINGS • A Jennings man was shot and killed by St. Louis County police late Friday after authorities said he charged at them with a knife during a standoff outside his home.
Two officers shot Thaddeus McCarroll, 23, multiple times, authorities said.
County police said the standoff began about 9:20 p.m. after officers responded to a report of a man wielding a knife and a Samurai sword locking his mother out of their home in the 9200 block of Riverwood Drive.
Charlene McCarroll told police her son was wandering the residence muttering about a “journey” and a “mission.” Police said she told them she wanted him removed from the house because of his behavior, which was not normal.
McCarroll, according to his mother, was also referring to a “black revolution.”
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Police said responding officers tried to talk with McCarroll and have him come outside, but they were unsuccessful. At 10:30 p.m. the county’s tactical operations unit was called and began negotiations.
About an hour later, McCarroll emerged from the home with a knife in one hand and a Bible in the other.
On a grainy body camera video released Saturday, police can be heard telling McCarroll, “We are not here to harm you.”
A tactical unit negotiator urges McCarroll to “do me a favor and drop the knife and come over here so we can talk about what’s going on.”
Moments later, the sound of a weapon can be heard. Police said they fired a single rubber bullet that struck McCarroll in the leg. Police said McCarroll, knife still in hand, then charged the tactical officers at a full run.
The video then records a burst of gunfire, followed by orders to “Get CPR going! Get a medic! Get a medic!” McCarroll was pronounced dead at the scene.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar defended the use of force. “My officers took every precaution to safely resolve this situation, starting with over an hourlong attempt at negotiations with the subject,” Belmar said. “The officers resorted to less-lethal force to try and bring the incident to a safe conclusion with no loss of life, but this individual made the decision to refuse these attempts, and charge at officers with a deadly weapon.”
The two-hour drama shattered the Friday night quiet in a neighborhood proud of the stability of longtime homeownership.
Many neighbors said they’ve known McCarroll since childhood. They say police told McCarroll’s mother they would get him help.
“They told her they would talk him out and take him to DePaul Hospital,” a neighbor said.
Instead, “they didn’t give that rubber bullet enough time to work,” said the neighbor, who was standing with Charlene McCarroll as the scene unfolded.
Velvet Wade, the McCarrolls’ next door neighbor, said the shots from the tactical unit weapons were like “a war zone.” “It all lit up,” Wade said.
Clustered with a group of neighbors, Charlene McCarroll watched from a driveway two homes away from the residence she shared with her son at the corner of Ranchdale and Riverwood drives.
Thaddeus M. McCarroll
“All I could do is hold his mother,” said another neighbor, dissolving in tears.
McCarroll’s death is the 10th police-involved fatality in the St. Louis area since the August death of 18-year-old Michael Brown spawned unrest in Ferguson and a national conversation about law enforcement response to African-Americans.
“This is another tragic situation where police officers had no other option than to use deadly force against an armed subject,” Belmar said. “A family lost a loved one tonight, and that is tragic; there is no understating that.”
Neighbors questioned why members of the tactical unit, wearing body armor, didn’t tackle McCarroll or attempt to disarm him with a Taser. “It needs to stop,” one about police shootings of African-American men. “I don’t know how, but it needs to stop.”
McCarroll was described as a polite young man who supported himself by doing odd jobs such as cutting grass and painting neighbor’s homes. In 2013, he was sentenced to probation on a burglary charge.
“I don’t know much about what he did outside the neighborhood, but he was never a problem in this neighborhood,” said Wade. “He always said, ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘Yes, sir’ to everybody.”
About 50 demonstrators gathered Saturday afternoon and into the evening outside the county police substation in Jennings to protest the McCarroll shooting. They held signs and occasionally blocked traffic on southbound Jennings Station Road.
“It’s about how (police) approached the situation,” said Ebony Williams, of Ferguson, a veteran demonstrator. “They had 20 cops in body armor, and he had a knife and a Bible. They didn’t come to stop him, they came to kill him.”
A St. Louis County police officer watches as protesters jeer at him after police cleared the parking lot at Jennings police station of cars on Saturday, April 18, 2015. The protesters gathered around 3pm and at times blocked traffic, stood in the road and demonstrated for hours. The protesters were upset over the fatal police officer involved shooting of Thaddeus McCarroll. Photo By David Carson, dcarson
County police remained inside for the first two hours of the protest before a handful of officers emerged in shirtsleeves at 6 p.m. to observe the activity.
Police confirmed reports of shots fired on a side street shortly after 8 p.m. as protesters made their way north in the street on Jennings Station Road toward West Florissant Avenue.
A short time later, police blocked the street to protesters, and the march broke up.
The county Crimes Against Persons Unit is overseeing the investigation into McCarroll’s death.
Denise Hollinshed and Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
