By Bill Bryan
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ST. LOUIS Three wounded men were charged with felonies in connection with the shooting of a man outside a nightclub and a subsequent encounter with two city police officers, who fired numerous shots, authorities said Thursday
Police presume the three were hit by shots from the two officers, who were unhurt. Two other suspects, including one who was wounded, were not charged because they could not be identified by the two officers, police said.
The initial victim, a 19-year-old man, remained in critical but stable condition Thursday with three gunshot wounds. Detectives have been unable to talk to him.
The two officers, in uniform and working as guards for Spruill’s Night Club, in the 1100 block of North Jefferson Avenue, reported hearing gunfire just north of the club about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. The officers said they saw several men standing over a man and firing several shots into him, so they intervened and ended up firing numerous shots at the men, who fled in a car.
Minutes later, a car containing five men -- four of them with gunshot wounds -- showed up at St. Louis University Hospital.
Three of those men -- Cortez Johnson, 32, Terron Thomas, 24, and Donnell Starks, 23 -- were each charged with one count of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and two counts of armed criminal action.