ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis police cruiser crashed into a south St. Louis bar overnight, and that’s just the beginning of the story.
The damage to the ‘Bar: PM’ building from the police cruiser crashing into it can still be seen. This was in the Cardondelet neighborhood of south city. This all happened at about 12:30 a.m.
Police told FOX 2 that the officer driving the cruiser somehow lost control and crashed into the bar. Authorities shared that they believe the two officers were in the cruiser, but they aren’t completely certain of that. Officials also revealed that no officers were hurt in the crash.
It’s also understood that the bar was closed at the time and nobody was inside it, so there were no injuries to anyone else either. The owners of the bar live upstairs. They came down after the crash to try and find out what happened.
One of the owners, James Pence, said that police told him that the officers were trying to avoid a dog in the roadway and that’s what caused the officer to lose control and hit the bar.
Police put Pence in handcuffs for a time because there was a conflict over him showing officers his identification. There was also another conflict with Pence’s partner, the co-owner of the bar.
Pence says the co-owner put hands on police at some point, leading to a physical altercation between the co-owner and officers. The co-owner was not seriously hurt and was taken into custody.
FOX 2 will update this story with more information as it becomes available.
