Trey Cockrell and his attorney Jaime Santana (author of upcoming "When Bad Cops Happen to Good People") filed a Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit in Missouri Wednesday.
In Nov. 2018 Mr. Cockrell, an African American, was the passenger in his girlfriend’s car. Police pulled them over, officers went each side of car got their IDs and were checking them out.
Trey left the car and ran into the adjacent woods. Police, including one with a history of complaints, take chase.
Time recordings have the officer, with a history of complaints, radioing “Shots Fired” within one minute. No one heard them. Within 2 minutes multiple agencies were on site in response to that call.
Although no one saw Mr. Cockrell with a gun, the officers converged upon him and 3 or 4 started shooting. Two or three of them have a history of complaints.
Mr. Cockrell was shot 8 times and remains partially disabled.
The Complaint alleges, among other things, misconduct by several officers, both the shooters and those who failed to stop them, and their superiors and employers for failing to properly train the officers as well as for allowing officers with history to continue their misconduct.
A list of the police defendants agencies and municipalities named in the federal lawsuit are listed below.
List of Defendants
- Joshua Bowersox, Brentwood police officer
- Nicolas Stanze, Brentwood police officer
- Major Craig Mueler, Brentwood police officer
- Joseph Spiess, Brentwood Police
- Chief Matt Karl, Richmond Heights police officer
- Jeffrey Dulaney, Richmond Heights police officer
- Officer Vargas, Richmond Heights police officer
- Doug Schaeffler, former Richmond Heights Police Chief
- Jeffrey DeVorss, Clayton sergeant
- Kevin Murphy, former Clayton Police Chief
- Jon Belmar, former St. Louis County Police Chief
- Timothy Fitch, former St. Louis County Police Chief
- The City of Brentwood
- Chris Thorton, Brentwood mayor
- The City of Richmond Heights
- Jim Thompson, Richmond Heights mayor
- The City of Clayton
- Harold Sangler, Clayton mayor
- The Saint Louis County Police Department
- Saint Louis County Police Academy(s)
- Saint Louis County
The case is being handled by the Santana Law Partners firm.