Off-Duty Mo. Sheriff's Deputy Was Drunk When Fatally Shot

April 21, 2011
Toxicology reports confirm what police said in February: That an off-duty sheriff's deputy was drunk when he was shot to death by St. Louis police on a city street. The post-mortem lab test says Timothy Kern had a 0.165 percent blood-alcohol concentration on the night of Feb. 10, authorities say.

April 20--ST. LOUIS -- Toxicology reports confirm what police said in February: That an off-duty sheriff's deputy was drunk when he was shot to death by St. Louis police on a city street.

The post-mortem lab test says Timothy Kern had a 0.165 percent blood-alcohol concentration on the night of Feb. 10, authorities say.

Kern, 53, was shot as he walked to a former girlfriend's home to deliver flowers and a nasty note with directions on how she could commit suicide, a police report released Tuesday says. Police stopped Kern after seeing his revolver in his hip holster as he walked in the street on Michigan Avenue near Dover Street.

A police investigative report says police fatally shot Kern after he grabbed the gun from his holster and turned toward the officer.

To put Kern's blood-alcohol level in perspective, 0.165 percent is double the legal limit for driving in Missouri. Dr. Michael Graham, the chief medical examiner for St. Louis, said someone with a blood-alcohol level that high would have impaired judgement and reflexes. Graham's office finished its review April 12.

More than two months after Kern's shooting death, the officer who fired the eight shots is back on regular duty after seeing a psychologist, which is department protocol. He is 42 years old and a 16-year veteran of the force. The department refuses to identify the officer until a threat-assessment can determine he's not in danger.

On Tuesday, the Post-Dispatch obtained the final police report of the incident. It includes new details about that night.

It says two officers -- whose names were both blacked out in the report -- were on their way to a disturbance call at 800 Schirmer Avenue at about 10:20 p.m. that night when they came across Kern walking in the southbound lane of Michigan, disrupting the flow of traffic. He was upset, having just argued with his former girlfriend's brother in the street.

He was carrying a bag of flowers and a note to his former girlfriend. The note demanded she return to him all of his belongings.

He wanted all of her brother's dogs out of his house. Kern questioned why she ever got involved with him. And, the letter gave the woman a detailed description of how to slit her wrists.

Before police drove by, Kern had been walking to the woman's house when he encountered the woman's brother, Tony Ricks, walking toward him on the street. Kern threw the flowers and note at Ricks and kept walking. Ricks followed Kern.

'LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS'

Ricks, who could not be reached for comment, told investigators he saw the patrol car pull up behind Kern. As the officers got closer, the patrol car's headlights illuminated Kern and his holster and gun on his right hip. Kern, who was off-duty that night, was not wearing his sheriff's deputy uniform. He was wearing a brown coat, camouflage shirt and pants.

One of the police officers got out of the car about 20 feet behind Kern and pulled his department-issued 9mm Beretta handgun.

Ricks told police he stayed back, stopped in his tracks, dropped the Payday candy bar he was eating and watched as police yelled at Kern, "Police, let me see your hands." Then Ricks told police he saw Kern take his handgun from his holster and spin to face the officers. That's when police shot him.

The officer fired eight shots. Kern was hit several times and fell to the ground. Kern was hit in the cheek, neck, chest and abdomen. He died at St. Louis University Hospital at 11:02 p.m. Police recovered Kern's fully loaded six-shot revolver.

Kern lived in the 5900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from where he was shot. He had worked as a deputy for the St. Louis sheriff's office since August 2002.

Homicide investigators with the St. Louis Police Department have finished their probe into the shooting, but the department's internal affairs investigation is not yet finished, said Erica Van Ross, a department spokeswoman. That review will determine if the officer followed department policy when firing the shots.

Meanwhile, Kern's daughter, Tosha Porter of Belleville, said the family has hired a lawyer and is considering filing a wrongful death suit. That lawyer, Jamie Boock, said he's still reviewing the case and declined to discuss it.

The family didn't witness the shooting but had complained afterward that Kern was likely reaching for his badge to identify himself as a deputy when he was shot.

___

Copyright (c) 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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