Detective Studies Methods Developed By Local Police Detective Paul Steel teaches police in Australia how to handle the most volatile chemicals used to make illegal drugs. But this week he traded his gas mask and chemical suit for a camera and notebook to watch Americans battle methamphetamine. "I came here to look at how police in other parts of the world are addressing the problem," he said. Steel said he would use the information he gathers to help tackle a growing number of meth labs in his home state of Western Australia. [continues 462 words]
A physician in Bridgeton who specializes in pain management was arrested Monday on a 93-count indictment accusing him of selling prescriptions for the medical equivalent of cocaine, heroin, morphine and speed. The case against Dr. Marlou Davis had been foreshadowed when similar charges were filed against him in October 2000 but dismissed by the state just before trial. St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch explained Monday that authorities chose to drop that case to build a stronger one after learning of the scope of the situation. [continues 421 words]
A Kinloch police officer said he accidentally shot a motorist during a traffic stop early Saturday then chased the man for 25 miles into Maryland Heights. The officer, Walter Wilson, the former police chief in Kinloch, said he stopped the man about 3:40 a.m. at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Suburban Avenue in Kinloch. He suspected the motorist, a 24-year-old man from Bridgeton, was involved with a drug transaction, Wilson said. Wilson says he reached through the car window to grab the man's keys in the ignition, and his drawn gun accidentally fired. The shot hit the man in the shoulder. [continues 206 words]
Rodney Martin paid no attention to his photo on the wanted poster taped to a convenience store window. He just pulled open the door, patted the pistol in his waistband and demanded money from the clerk. This robbery -- on Father's Day last month in the Vickers at 10310 Page Avenue in Overland -- was typical in a string of holdups so unnerving to the chain's employees that some clerks quit out of fear. For reasons Martin won't discuss, he liked to hit Vickers. And he apparently liked the one in Overland best of all: The holdup June 16 was his fifth at that location. [continues 1102 words]
* The arrest gone awry included gunshots, a fleeing car, a struck utility pole, a bleeding man and the officer and suspect both being hospitalized. An undercover police officer from Bridgeton suffered minor injuries Friday after being knocked down by a car driven by a fleeing drug suspect who was shot in a barrage of gunfire from the officer and his partner in St. Ann. The suspect drove several blocks before his car struck a utility pole in Breckenridge Hills. He briefly ran and then collapsed several yards from the apartment where his girlfriend and newborn baby live. [continues 418 words]
Marco's seven-year police career started off shaky when he bit his partner the first day they met. But the Belgian Malinois went on to distinguish himself with dogged work for the St. Louis County Police Department, using his canine nose to help seize more than $1.5 million worth of drugs and arrest more than 2,000 suspects. As Marco retired this week, he left the force best of friends with his handler, Officer Joe Brandt. "He is very protective," Brandt said. "He won't bite unless he thinks someone is trying to hurt me." [continues 291 words]
