Stephon Averyhart. |
Seven months have passed since police officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department shot and killed 27-year-old Stephon Averyhart during a wild chase, but the investigation is still ongoing and few details have been released. Now, the mother of the deceased wants to know why it’s taking so long — and why she has never been contacted by police since they called her to identify her son’s body. On February 12, Averyhart was fleeing police before he crashed his car into a telephone poll near the corner of Harney Avenue and Union Boulevard. He then jumped out of the car and ran as officers followed him on foot. Averyhart turned into an alley and then was shot dead by the officers. The officers say Averyhart pointed a gun at them first and a gun was found on the scene. But friends and relatives say he although he kept a gun for self-protection, he wasn’t the type to shoot at police; he was just running to evade getting arrested for warrants from unpaid tickets.
The only blemishes on Averyhart’s criminal record are traffic tickets and a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
Whatever happened that day, Averyhart’s mother Stacey Hill says she has been left in the dark about details. The only thing she knows about the shooting is what was reported in local news — which was all based almost exclusively on a 215-word explanation in a press release. Other than that, she has heard nothing.
The only official contact between Hill and the SLMPD was when she got the call to identify Averyhart at the Medical Examiner’s office.
“From that day to this day nobody has ever called me and said anything about my son,” Hill tells our colleagues at the Riverfront Times. Head over to Daily RFT for more.