Recently, a pair of St. Louis, Missouri, police officers were sitting inside of their fully marked and idling police cruiser when one man stepped into traffic, proceeded to walk up to the passenger side of the cruiser, and brandished a handgun at the police officers in what seemed to be an attempt to carjack the vehicle from the officers.
The officers were out in response to a call of shots fired when to ordeal took place, stated Fox 2 in a report. A summary of the incident from the police states that the “officers were able to maneuver out of harm’s way while the suspect simultaneously discovered he was attempting to carjack a fully marked police car. The suspect took off running.”
Additional assisting officers were able to find and apprehend the suspect in order to take him into custody.
In a report on Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated that the prosecutors have declined to press charges against the man, despite the fact that officials with the St. Louis Police Department (SLPD) pressed charges of first-degree robbery, armed criminal action, and resisting arrest. One spokeswoman for the SLPD, Evita Caldwell, issued a confirmation to the Post-Dispatch that prosecutors outright refused to file any charges.
A spokeswoman for Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner stated to KSDK that the entire case was still “under investigation” and refused to tell the news source about why no charges have been officially filed. The outlet has also highlighted that the man who was taken into custody in the case “is currently facing charges for several incidents over the past few years in St. Louis and Jefferson County, including domestic assault, violating an order of protection and first-degree property damage.”
The frequencies of carjackings have rapidly increased throughout the pandemic. Back in 2021, carjackings reported in D.C. went up by 74% between January and July 12 over the same period in 2020.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the crimes and inquiries on how to combat them, but D.C. police revealed they launched a carjacking task force using ‘bait cars’ to catch suspects in the city,” stated Fox News in a report.
In early January of 2022, six teenagers across the ages of 13 -17 were arrested in D.C. for separate instances of carjacking.
In December of 2021, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) was making her way to her vehicle “when she said two black males approached her and demanded her keys. After she handed over her keys, one man drove her vehicle followed by the second man in another SUV.”
Later on that very same day, a group of suspects which included four men and one woman, was taken into custody for the incident. In the wake of the incident Scanlon’s office put forth a statement issue thanks to the police forces for their hard work:
Wednesday afternoon around 2:45 p.m., Congresswoman Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint in FDR Park following a meeting at that location. The Congresswoman was physically unharmed. She thanks the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response, and appreciates the efforts of both the Sergeant at Arms in D.C. and her local police department for coordinating with Philly PD to ensure her continued safety.