By Donna Leinwand
USA TODAY
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man with a history of drug dealing and violence shot and killed a U.S. marshal and wounded two other officers Tuesday, the latest in a spate of police shootings nationwide.
The attack came less than a month after one marshal was killed and two wounded in West Virginia.
“Last year, it was a particularly violent year for law enforcement officers. We saw almost a 40% increase in officers killed,” said Mark Marshall, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “2011 is unfortunately looking as bad if not worse.”
During the St. Louis shootout, Deputy Marshal John Perry, 48, was shot in the head and died later at a hospital, the U.S. Marshals Service said. A second marshal, Theodore Abegg, 31, was in fair condition for a gunshot wound to the ankle.
A St. Louis police officer, a 34-year veteran of the department whose face and neck were grazed by a bullet, was released from the hospital, police spokeswoman Erica Van Ross said.
The gunbattle came as authorities tried to arrest Carlos Boles, 35, on charges of drug possession, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The marshals and police officer returned fire, killing Boles, Marshals spokesman Jeff Carter said.
Court records show Boles had been convicted of at least 12 offenses and served prison time for drug crimes and assault. St. Louis police’s Violent Offenders Unit had asked the U.S. Marshals Service to assist in the arrest because Boles could “pose a threat to law enforcement officials,” the police department said. Eight marshals participated.
This is the second time this year that federal marshals have been shot. Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, 24, was killed Feb. 16 in Elkins, W.Va., as he, two other marshals and state police tried to arrest a fugitive. The suspect, armed with a shotgun, was fatally shot.
Last year, a man upset about losing Social Security benefits and armed with a shotgun killed Stanley Cooper, a court security officer working for the U.S. Marshals Service in Las Vegas.
Marshall, the police chief in Smithfield, Va., said easy access to guns, increasingly violent criminals and understaffed departments have left officers more vulnerable.
“We’ve got to find a way to restore some funding to get those cops back on the street,” he said.
Police increasingly are confronted by “a different kind of criminal,” he said. “They are more violent and more willing to resort to violence against law enforcement and the public at large.”
Copyright 2011 Gannett Company, Inc.