Trey Cockrell (above) 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.
