MO: Prosecutor Drops Gun Charge After Police Turn Off Dahscam Video

By Dean Weingarten

MO: Prosecutor Drops Gun Charge Because of Video
MO: Prosecutor Drops Gun Charge Because of Video
Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- In St. Louis, Missouri, before Ferguson, the police arrested an 18-year-old on gun and drug charges.   An officer turned off the dashcam video of the event, and because of that, the prosecutor dropped all charges.

Watch the video below:

From kfor.com:  Police drop gun charge because of video.

Police say they found marijuana and a loaded handgun in Bufford’s pocket. The police report says an officer noticed it before the tazing and announced, “He has a gun.” The report continues, “In an attempt to prevent (Bufford) from reaching the weapon, (an officer) administered one foot strike.”

Schwartz said, “You didn’t hear anything, you didn’t see anything about a gun and that`s because it didn’t happen.”

The prosecutor dropped the charges against Bufford, after seeing the police dash cam tape. The original charges included “unlawful use of a weapon.”

In this article from stltoday.com, the police are reported as finding two cartridges in the passenger’s pocket, and a Kel-Tec 9mm with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, in Bufford’s pocket.  Buford was 18 at the time.

He was then handcuffed, and Binz recovered a Kel-Tec 9mm semi-automatic pistol with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. It has a capacity of 11.

It appears the gun was real, and was being carried illegally.

The police report says the passenger told officers the gun and marijuana both belonged to Bufford. An investigation of whether the men had fired shots earlier was “inconclusive.”

Cameras are making police follow procedures more closely.  In this case, I suspect the charges would have stood up, if the officer had not turned off the dashcam.

c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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Ned

If the alleged perp was truly a bad guy, the police blew it in this case. But, one can’t necessarily take LEO’s word for it on faith: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/officer-reveals-planting-evidence-lying-part-game/