By Joel Currier
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. ANN — Police Chief Aaron Jimenez apologized Friday for a case of mistaken identity after a police chase a day earlier, but the man handcuffed in the incident wants the officers involved fired.
St. Ann officers mistakenly handcuffed Joseph Swink about 1:45 p.m. Thursday after Swink’s car spun out from being struck by a car that was fleeing from police. Jimenez said Swink’s car crashed and stopped on Interstate 70 near Cypress Road.
The officers meant to arrest the driver of the car that had hit Swink. That man had fled a traffic stop. He crashed after hitting Swink.
“We did put handcuffs on the wrong guy,” Jimenez said. “And I apologize for that. But they did it in good faith. It was literally an accident.”
Swink, 22, of Northwoods, said he thinks the St. Ann officers who tackled him to the pavement and handcuffed him should lose their jobs.
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Swink said.
Swink suffered cuts and bruises to his face during the incident. He wouldn’t say how his injuries occurred but wants St. Ann to cover his medical bills and put money toward a new car. He said the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu he was driving was totaled.
Swink, a junior accounting major at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said he does not have health insurance. He said he was driving home from his internship at Edward Jones Investments in West St. Louis County at the time of the crash.
“I’m just shocked that all of this happened,” he said.
Jimenez said the fleeing car was being driven by Anton Simmons, 32, of Moline Acres, who has several outstanding warrants and a record that includes assaulting police. Simmons fled St. Ann officers on eastbound I-70, struck Swink’s car and kept going. A few miles east near Air Flight Drive, Simmons stopped after driving down an embankment and striking a St. Ann police car, Jimenez said.
That’s when police reported a crash over their radios, and officers thought Swink was Simmons.
Swink “gets out and runs toward the back of the car, so they grab him, toss him on the ground,” Jimenez said. “They didn’t Tase him. They didn’t use batons. They didn’t kick him in the face. They definitely put him on the ground and were trying to get handcuffs on him while he’s squirming around. And he’s resisting arrest because he’s trying to tell the police that it’s not him.”
Jimenez says he believes Swink was injured by his own car’s air bag during the crash, though Jimenez acknowledged the scuffle with police could have aggravated any facial wounds. As soon as the officers realized Swink was not the fleeing driver, they uncuffed him and offered medical treatment, Jimenez said.
Simmons was charged Friday with assaulting a police officer, armed criminal action and property damage. He was being held at the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
The officers who tried to arrest Swink had been looking for drug traffickers at the time of the incident, Jimenez said. Because of that, they may not have heard the description of Simmons’ car broadcast on the air because they were not monitoring St. Ann’s main police radio channel when the call about Simmons’ crash was dispatched. As a result, Jimenez said he has instructed his officers to monitor all St. Ann police radio channels.
The officers will not be disciplined because it was an honest mistake, Jimenez said.
“I apologize for the mistaken identity,” he said. “I am sorry he got put into that situation because of the suspect.”
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