ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green recently filed a federal suit against the City of St. Louis and unnamed St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) officers alleging violations of her First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights amid protests that followed the 2017 acquittal of Officer Jason Stockley in the death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
In her suit filed Sept. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Green alleges that the unidentified police officers “unlawfully used chemical munitions” against her in the contentious aftermath of the Stockley's acquittal. .
According to the suit, Green has experienced respiratory issues as a result of the alleged unprovoked chemical attack and fears “arbitrary arrest” as well as “abuse and retaliation” for her engagement in her “expressive activity that is critical of the police.”
The suit said that a protest in a Central West End neighborhood resulted in tear gas being “indiscriminately fired” by the SLMPD. Green, according to the filing, took refuge in the Central Reform Congregation synagogue.
“While inside, Green could hear SLMPD officers banging on the door and yelling," The suit said. "She could also see clouds of tear gas and that the synagogue entrance was surrounded by SLMPD officers.”
Green stayed inside the synagogue along with 10 other individuals for at least an hour, maintaining that they “felt threatened by the police who were lying in wait,” the suit said. After an hour, Green left the synagogue and requested permission to cross the police line to return to her vehicle after which several SLMPD officers allegedly began making “mocking statements toward Ms. Green.”
According to the court documents, the police began to “indiscriminately disperse tear gas” with “no warning.”
Protests had erupted after the announcement of the 2017 Stockley verdict in multiple locations in St. Louis and its surrounding communities. According to the court document, “St. Louis Metropolitan police officers amassed at several protests wearing military-like tactical dress, helmets, batons, and full-body riot shields.”
According to the filing, they were also carrying chemicals agents like “tear gas, skunk, inert smoke, pepper gas, pepper pellets, xylyl bromide, and/or similar substances” and deployed them “without warning, against individuals observing, recording or participating in protest activity.”
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division, case number 4:18-cv-01629