FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – A St. Louis man is accused of attacking motel employees and fleeing police when confronted by officers.
According to Chief Michael Wirt, St. Clair Police Department, officers were dispatched to the Super 8 Motel in the 1000 block of South Outer Road at noon on Dec. 3 for a reported disturbance.
When officers walked in the lobby, they met with a customer, later identified as Louis Finocchio.
Wirt said police noticed Finocchio, 37, seemed agitated and that his hands were swollen and bloodied. When asked about the blood, Finocchio claimed to have cut his foot.
Finocchio sprinted from the lobby when officers told him they planned on detaining him. Officers fired department-issued Taser devices at Finocchio, to no effect.
Franklin County deputies helped St. Clair police search the area and locate Finocchio.
Meanwhile, police found two victims on the second floor of the motel. They were identified as a 56-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man. Both had suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals. Chief Wirt said both are in critical condition.
Investigators learned Finocchio got into an altercation with the male employee in a motel room. The female employee heard the fracas and went to the room to investigate. She was then thrown from the room and struck her head and body on a door jamb across the hallway.
Finocchio followed the woman into the hallway and began punching and kicking her. The male employee tried to stop the beating, but Finocchio punched him in the face and seemingly knocked him out.
Finocchio turned his attention back to the woman and continued kicking and yelling at her, the police claim.
Eventually, Finocchio dragged both victims into a room, placed them in the bathroom, then closed the room door and went to the lobby. Finocchio allegedly broke into the money drawer and stole $300 in cash. Police walked in the motel lobby as Finocchio attempted to leave.
The Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Finocchio with two counts of first-degree assault, one count of first-degree robbery, one count of resisting arrest of a felony. Finocchio remains jailed without bond.
