A St. Louis Police shooting that left 18-year-old Mansur Bell-Bey dead last week has led to two separate investigations and ire between Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association.
Police contend that Bell-Bey was shot and killed after he pointed a gun at them while they were attempting to serve a warrant at a residence in the city’s Fountain Park neighborhood.
An autopsy confirmed the man was killed by a single gunshot to the back that pierced his heart. Chief Sam Dotson said Friday the fact that Bell-Bey was shot in the back does not mean his officers acted inappropriately, but added that he could not say the shooting was justified. “Just because he was shot in the back doesn’t mean he was running away,” Dotson said
Joyce announced her office would conduct an investigation into the shooting concurrently with that of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Dotson said he welcomed the review by Joyce’s office because of its timing. “Given the pace of the Circuit Attorney’s work, a head-start on this case, which has the community’s attention, makes some sense,” he said in a statement.
Joe Steiger, president of the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, called Joyce’s investigation “a discredit to the members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.”
Standing with Joyce during her announcement was city NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt, which also did not sit well with Steiger. “[It] suggests this investigation is motivated by political appeasement and not the pursuit of truth and justice,” he said.
Joyce countered that her office “is simply beginning (an investigation) immediately and expediting the process.” She called it “the exact same review as under normal protocol.”
Pruitt said, “It’s extremely important we have a second set of eyes and it’s important that we get it right. We got to get it right this time in St. Louis.”
The Bell-Bey shooting will also be the first major test of the city’s newly appointed Civilian Review Board.
Joyce suggested the board request that Attorney General Chris Koster’s office review department policy and procedures, which Dotson says is unneeded. “This request creates a spectre that is simply not true,” he said. “The Department’s policies are consistent with best practices set forth by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).”
