By Denise Hollinshed ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
EAST ST. LOUIS- A standoff in East St. Louis between police and a man who held a knife to his throat ended Wednesday near the old Obear Nester glass factory when police subdued him with a Taser.
Police said the incident began when Jeffrey L. Almos, 38, of Granite City, went into an office at Zambaldi Dental, located on Collinsport Drive in Collinsville, and threatened a woman with a knife, then battered her until she was unconscious.
The man took an undisclosed amount of cash and the woman’s keys to her Ford Taurus. He fled in the woman’s car. Police pursued the car, which ended up crashing near the intersection of Broadway and 18th Street.
When an East St. Louis police officer spotted Almos, the man was up against a fence holding a knife to his throat.
An U. S. Marshal negotiator spent at least two hours trying to convince Almos to surrender. Almos had used a steak knife to inflict wounds to his neck and arms, police said. Almos was taken to St. Louis University Medical Center for treatment.
The woman at the dental office told police that she planned to drive herself to the hospital.
East St. Louis Police Chief James Mister said the initial call over the police radio was a carjacking involving a child, but they later confirmed that it was not a carjacking and that the man was alone in the car.
March 2, 2006