Members of a St. Louis community are demanding answers after a police car crashed into a local gay bar early Monday morning, resulting in the arrest of one of the businesses' co-owners.
Owned by Chad Morris and James Pence, Bar:PM is an LGBTQIA+ safe space for residents of St. Louis and beyond. Around 12:30 a.m. Monday night, the pair, who live above the bar, told local NBC affiliate KSDK-TV that they were startled by a loud boom.
The married couple went to the front of the business only to see a St. Louis police patrol car had crashed into the front of their bar. According to KSDK-TV, a report from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said the vehicle contained two St. Louis police probation officers, both new on the force.
According to police, the driver overcorrected because he "believed he was traveling too close to a parked car,” causing him to lose control of the vehicle and smash into the bar. Pence told local outlets including Fox 2, however, that the officer initially said he had swerved to avoid hitting a dog.
“I was in bed. I heard a loud bang. I felt the building shake. I ran down from upstairs. He actually apologized to me.," Pence told Fox 2. "He said ‘I literally swerved to miss a dog.’ He was very–he was actually extremely nice. He was the nicest officer out there.”
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First on the scene was Pence, who told KSDK-TV he initially refused to give the officers his ID when asked. He was put in handcuffs as a result, he said. Morris, shaken by the crash, confronted the officers and told KSDK-TV that this was when he heard one of them use a homophobic slur. The couple’s attorney, Javad Khazaeli, later told NBC that Pence couldn’t be certain it was an officer or another bystander who made the offensive comment, however.
This is when, according to police, an “offender began shouting obscenities” and the situation escalated after the officers “attempted to calm the situation,” which ended up with one of the officers being pushed.
Pence said his husband was the one who ended up in a physical altercation with police.
"I came out and my husband came out as well and there was a cop that made a very homophobic remark," he told KSDK-TV. "My husband did put his hand on a cop out of defense because they had already put me in handcuffs because I wanted to know what was going on. I was told I had to (show) ID or shut up."
Morris was initially charged with third-degree assault on a special victim, a felony and taken to jail where he was held until Tuesday morning when he was released. St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office later reduced Morris' charges to fourth-degree assault and resisting arrest, two misdemeanors.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, Khazaeli said the reduced charges "won’t be enough, saying in part: "We have video that shows that the police were the aggressors. And Chad did nothing wrong."
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He also shared footage of the crash taken from another business' security camera, saying: "You all heard about the cop car that slammed into Bar:PM Sunday night. And they arrested the owner for having the audacity to question him. Well here’s the video."
“Our goal is to have all of these charges dismissed because there’s no basis for them, and then to decide what kind of claims my clients have against these officers and to hold the officers accountable because this just can’t stand,” Khazaeli told NBC News. "You can’t have police officers terrorizing people, because they’re victims of a crime. And when they asked what happened, to be treated this way.”
During a Monday press conference, Mayor Tishaura Jones said the crash was still under investigation.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, Bar:PM and the mayor's office did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
However, Lt. Col. Renee Kriesmann of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department did tell FOX 2 that bodycam video of the incident is “being reviewed.” When asked if the officers involved were given a toxicology test for alcohol and/or drugs following the accident, Kriesmann told FOX 2 that the officer driving the vehicle admitted to being distracted by changing his in-car radio before the crash. She also confirmed no toxicology tests were taken after the crash.