DEA PLAN PUT PUBLIC AT RISK, PANEL SAYS

Undercover drug agents put the public at risk when they tried to arrest a
suspect on the parking lot of a Jack in the Box restaurant in Berkeley
almost two years ago, a citizens committee appointed by the St. Louis
County Council concluded Thursday.

Instead of making an arrest, the drug agents fired 21 shots and killed the
suspect and a friend seated in a car with him. The agents said they feared
the suspect was trying to run over them in an attempt to escape.

The citizens panel, which met Thursday at the county government center in
Clayton, voted unanimously to adopt a five-page report, which will be sent
to the County Council and the county Police Board. It will be up to those
bodies to implement any recommendations.

The panel said the location for the drug arrest "seemed inappropriate" --
it was evening rush hour and the restaurant is next to Interstate 70 and
across the road from a busy MetroLink station.

"This is my neighborhood; it was totally inappropriate to do it there with
so many people around," said Rita Days, one of the 10 panel members.

The second man killed, Ronald Beasley, was not wanted on any charges.

That criticism aside, the panel found few faults with the attempted arrest
June 12, 2000, at the Jack in Box.

John King, a zoning lawyer who heads the panel, said his biggest concern is
that St. Louis County police were not in charge of the operation.

King said agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration planned and
led the operation.

County Police Maj. Jerry Lee agreed. "The DEA had a plan; they had the
operational plan," Lee said.

Earlier, county police had said the operation had been led by the county
police drug unit, joined by DEA agents.

The two officers who fired the fatal shots were a Dellwood police detective
working for the county drug unit, and a DEA agent.

A county grand jury voted not to issue any charges against the officers. A
federal investigation, led in part by U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender, concluded
that the agents had not violated U.S. civil rights laws. Both dead men were
African-American.

The county citizens panel accused federal prosecutors of refusing to
cooperate with it. The panel voted unanimously to: "Register official
displeasure with the lack of cooperation between the United States
Attorney's office and this committee; the refusal of that office - after
publicly stating its willingness to cooperate with us - to meet and discuss
the Berkeley case added to the limitations with which we had to deal."

Added Scodary: "We clearly weren't important to them."

In response, Gruender, the U.S. attorney, said one of his prosecutors met
with the committee at least once.

Gruender also said that last October he released many of the details of his
year-long investigation into the shooting. He said the amount of
information released was "unprecedented" for a case in which no one was
charged. "We went beyond the call of duty," Gruender said.

The panel also investigated the fatal shooting by St. Louis County police
last year of Annette Green. She was a drug suspect killed as officers were
serving a search warrant in the evening at her darkened home in Wellston.
Officers said they thought she carried a gun but that it turned out to be a
large bolt.

The citizens panel concluded that police should try to serve warrants in
daylight, should try to have better means of lighting than weapon-mounted
flashlights and should re-evaluate the use of automatic settings on weapons
that allow several bullets to fire with one squeeze of the trigger.

The panel also voted not to recommend the establishment of a citizens
oversight board to hear complaints against police. The creation of such a
board was the major goal of some county residents who say mistreatment of
minorities and others is not uncommon in St. Louis County.

Panel chairman King said his group believes county police are well-trained
and should be looked up to by municipal police departments whose officers
sometimes are guilty of "definite prejudice" and other bad practices. .

The Rev. Phillip Duvall of the St. Louis NAACP said he was "outraged,
disgusted and disappointed" at the panel's refusal to endorse a police
citizens review board.

"In that area, we've taken several steps back," Duvall added.

King said the county's Police Board is made up of citizens and that there
should be no need for any additional oversight.