ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The NAACP St. Louis County is joining its St. Louis City counterpart in calling for road workers to be charged with a hate crime in connection with a Sept. 26 assault case involving an off-duty police officer.
FOX 2 first reported on the assault, which occurred around 10:30 p.m. that evening between the off-duty county officer and three road crew workers.
No one disputes an assault took place on Lindbergh and Lemay Ferry Road that night.
According to the St. Louis County Police Department’s probable cause statement, police responded to the area, where road crews were repaving sections of Lindbergh.
Road workers told FOX 2 the off-duty officer started things after driving into their work zone, which had been blocked off with cones.
The road workers were each arrested. However, the off-duty officer was handcuffed and briefly detained, which one of the road workers acknowledged.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Garrett Gibbs, 23, of Fenton; Matthew Devlin, 39, of Fenton; and Donnie Hurley II, 42, of Arnold, each with two counts of armed criminal action and one count of kidnapping. Devlin also faces a first-degree assault charge. All three men have bond reduction hearings on Tuesday, Oct. 15, which FOX 2 will attend.
The probable cause statement said, according to one witness account, Devlin “used repeated racial slurs while screaming” at the off-duty officer. His remarks allegedly included “stupid [expletive],” and telling the off-duty officer he did not “belong down here” and to “go back to the hood with your gold chain.”
Per the probable cause statement, police said Devlin “escalated the verbal altercation by striking the victim in the head with a hardhat.” The probable cause statement said that Gibbs and Hurley held the off-duty officer while Devlin hit him with the hardhat. It also said that off-duty officer was choking at one point, pleading with the workers that he could not breathe.
This past Sunday, the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP issued its own statement condemning the attack, calling it a “violent, racially charged assault.”
“We will not stand by while racial violence threatens the safety and dignity of our community,” St. Louis County NAACP President John Bowman said. “The brutal assault on this officer is more than just a violent crime—it is an act of racial terrorism.”
Both NAACP city and county chapters said the county police mishandled the situation by handcuffing the off-duty officers. Both the road workers charged, and the civil rights groups, said the officer was given a sobriety test at the scene. The road workers allege the off-duty cop was intoxicated when he entered their work zone.
“The only person of color on the scene was the off-duty police officer, and he was the only one that was detained by police for a moment of time,” NAACP St. Louis President Adolphus Pruitt said.
The organizations are asking for the FBI to get involved for possible hate crime charges. They’ve also requested the Missouri Department of Transportation terminate all contracts with the construction company employing the accused road workers.
