CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A police organization says a St. Louis County police officer who struck and killed a 12-year-old girl while rushing after a suspicious vehicle should be charged in the death.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, said Monday that the unidentified officer should face a manslaughter charge in the death of Akeelah Jackson. The society is an association of mostly black officers in St. Louis and St. Louis County that was formed to fight racial discrimination.
The officer told police he was trying to get closer to a suspicious car to make a traffic stop and wasn’t using lights and sirens when he struck the girl on Oct. 14 as she tried to cross the street.
The investigation into the girl’s death is continuing and the officer is “serving in an administrative capacity,” authorities said Monday.