Chase ends in fatal crash in Granite City
By Jeremy Kohler and Paul Hampel
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 02 2003
All that Florissant police Officer Paul Sexton knew for sure when he chased a
van about 5 a.m. Tuesday was that it had a broken window and a fleeing driver,
two signs it might be stolen.
Police said they wondered — but had no way to know — whether it was linked to a
mysterious man with bullets in his pockets who was arrested four hours earlier.
He told them only that he had been out with two other men.
Not until the van sped through a red traffic signal in Granite City and plowed
halfway through a car — killing an unsuspecting driver on the way to work — did
the man with the bullets give a fuller picture. Detectives say he told them
that he and the van's driver were half brothers who had been interrupted in
final preparations for a home invasion.
In the van's wreckage, officers found two rifles the men planned to use in the
crime, said Florissant Police Chief William Karabas. The weapons had been
stolen earlier in a burglary in Clayton.
The van's driver, Richard A. Alsup, 27, of Ferguson, said by police to have an
extensive record of felony convictions and a violent history, was treated at a
hospital for a minor leg injury and then charged with first-degree murder,
aggravated possession of stolen firearms, aggravated offenses relating to motor
vehicles and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon. He was jailed with bail
set at $3 million.
The victim was John Smith, 32, of Granite City, who had been on his way to work
at the Capri Sun soft drink plant in Granite City. Smith was engaged to be
married in June to Shelly Taylor, 31, of Granite City.
"John was a great man, a loving man," said Taylor, who has three children from
a previous marriage. "He was the kind of man who never had a child of his own
but took me in, a divorced woman with three kids, and loved me and my children
like we were his own family."
In a news conference, Florissant Mayor Robert Lowery and Chief Karabas
repeatedly expressed sympathy for Smith's loved ones.
And the mayor, who was previously the city's police chief, growled at reporters
who asked whether the chase had been appropriate.
Florissant's policies allow "hot pursuit" only when the officer thinks the
suspect presents a clear and immediate threat to other motorists' safety; has
committed or tried to commit a felony; or when the need to catch the suspect
outweighs the danger of a chase.
Lowery said he does not believe the pursuit violated that policy. The arrest of
the suspect carrying bullets suggested that there were two others on the street
"who were armed — possibly heavily armed" and thus justified the chase, he
noted.
No charges had been filed against that man by late Tuesday.
The events started about 12:45 a.m., Karabas said. That's when Sexton and
Officer Jeffrey Lappe found a vehicle parked behind Boston Square shopping
center at Lindbergh Boulevard and Thunderbird Avenue.
Inside, they saw ammunition and what to them appeared to be burglary tools,
Karabas said. Burglars had recently hit a pancake restaurant, a gas station and
an apartment complex, all within a half-mile radius.
The officers drove off, but watched from a distance.
Minutes later, they saw someone speed off in the vehicle. They stopped it
within two blocks and arrested the driver — the man with bullets in his
pockets. Inside the van were a crowbar, various tools and two-way radios.
Later, Karabas said, police learned that three men were about to invade a home
in the 2100 block of Cardinal Avenue. They had chosen the target because Alsup
had done roofing work there, police said.
But the men scattered when they saw the officers checking out the vehicle they
left behind Boston Square, Karabas said. When they thought the coast was clear,
Karabas said, Alsup took the guns. His half brother ran to the vehicle.
It was unclear what happened to the third man, or who he was.
Alsup, out of sight, witnessed the arrest of his half brother, police said they
learned later. They said Alsup walked north on Lindbergh Boulevard more than a
mile to Joe's Auto Mart, where he stole the van, a 1995 Chevrolet Vandura
2500.
It was about 5 a.m. when Sexton noticed the van, with a broken vent window,
behind another strip mall.
Karabas said he does not know all the turns that Sexton and another Florissant
officer, Lt. Tim Fodde, made in chasing Alsup. Generally they went east on
Interstate 270 into Illinois, then south on Route 203, which is called Nameoki
Road in Granite City. Hot pursuits are permitted to cross state lines.
Waiting out the end of a dull graveyard shift at a Mobil station along Nameoki
Road at Pontoon Road, cashier Jason Tindall tuned in a police radio scanner and
heard that a high-speed pursuit was heading his way.
As Tindall looked north toward the darkness, a black Chevrolet Camaro waited
out the signal on Pontoon Road.
"Then I heard the sirens," said Tindall, 20. He saw a van burst into the
intersection, followed by a line of flashing lights on what he said must have
been a dozen patrol cars.
"And the light turned green. And the Camaro started moving into the
intersection, and I yelled, 'He's going to get killed!'"
Granite City police and the Madison County Sheriff's Departments said their
officers played backup roles, leaving the primary pursuit to Florissant
officers.
Maj. Richard Miller, of the Granite City police, said the chase may have ended
in his city, but Florissant had remained in control of it.
"I don't think our guys ever got that close," he said. "But if Florissant
had
called it off, we probably would have also."
Reporter Jeremy Kohler
E-mail: jkohler@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-241-9435
Reporter Paul Hampel
E-mail: phampel@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 618-659-3639
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