The head of the city’s police union slammed Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce on Saturday about her decision to conduct an investigation separate from the ongoing police inquiry into the killing of Mansur Ball-Bey by an officer this past week.
Ball-Bey, 18, was shot in the back.
The killing, and the violent confrontation between police and protesters that followed, came less than two weeks after officers and protesters faced off on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
Joyce’s decision is a departure from the usual protocol in which her office would wait until getting the results of the police investigation before conducting its own.
The separate and simultaneous investigations did not sit well with Joe Steiger, president of the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, who called Joyce’s decision politically motivated.
People are also reading…
“Jennifer Joyce’s announcement is a discredit to the members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,†Steiger said in a statement.
Steiger also took exception to Joyce making her announcement while standing next to representatives from the NAACP.
“The involved officers welcome an impartial investigation in which the sole purpose is to determine and report the facts of the incident,†Steiger said.
Aligning herself with the civil rights organization, “suggests this investigation is motivated by political appeasement and not the pursuit of truth and justice,†he said.
After hearing of the police union’s position on Saturday, Joyce said she was having a difficult time understanding why she has come under attack.
“Our announcement clearly indicated the Circuit Attorney’s Office would be conducting the exact same review as under normal protocol; the office is simply beginning immediately and expediting the process,†she said in a statement.
Starting the process immediately won’t change the nature of the review nor the approach of the people conducting the investigation, she added.
Despite Steiger’s anger, not everyone in the law enforcement community is upset about the parallel investigations.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said he welcomed Joyce’s review, adding that his department is used to conducting joint investigations with other agencies, including the FBI.
“It’s not a problem,†Dotson said last week. “What it does is speeds up the investigative process and the final report, so the public gets answers more quickly, and I think that’s a good thing.â€
Dotson has defended his officers since Wednesday’s shooting. But at a news conference Friday, he could not say whether the shooting was justified. He said the facts were still being sought and that it would do no good to rush to judgment.
Two officers fired at Ball-Bey on Wednesday while serving a warrant at Walton Avenue near Page Boulevard. Police said he was armed and pointed a gun at them.
Some protesters dismissed the explanation as the standard police narrative following a shooting.
