Robert Goodrich; Of The Post-Dispatch
February 3, 2001, Saturday, Five Star Lift Edition
Copyright 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 3, 2001, Saturday, Five Star Lift Edition
(BELLEVILLE, Mo.) -- A man with a history of break-ins was charged Friday with breaking in to the home of police Lt. James Goodwin - the same officer who fatally shot a fleeing holdup and carjacking suspect two months ago.
Charged with residential burglary was Warren N. Elkins, 46, a homeless man who had been staying at a Salvation Army shelter. He had been sentenced in 1998 to four years in prison for two previous burglaries.
Authorities gave this account:
Goodwin was watching television about 6 p.m. Wednesday when he heard someone knock, then kick in his back door. A neighbor had reported earlier that a suspicious man had been hanging around their homes.
The intruder tried to open a locked interior door as Goodwin waited, pistol in hand. When the door wouldn’t open, the man walked back outside and around to the front of the house.
Goodwin, whose house faces West Main Street near Althoff Catholic High School, opened his front door and ordered the man to halt. Instead, he fled, with Goodwin in pursuit.
Officers with searchlights surrounded a nearby patch of woods and flushed out the man, who ran toward Goodwin, ignoring shouted orders to drop to the ground.
The man eventually surrendered, but not before he reached into his pockets and pulled out jewelry.
St. Clair County State’s Attorney Robert B. Haida is completing his review of a State Police investigation of Goodwin’s shooting on Nov. 30 of fleeing suspect Dwayne R. Jackson, 20, on parole for home invasion.
Police were chasing Jackson and two accomplices accused of having carried out a carjacking in St. Louis and a holdup and attempted holdup in Belleville.