An officer involved in a police car driving directly into a gay bar, Bar:PM, and then even more shockingly, arresting one of the gay bar’s owners, is no longer employed, says the St. Louis Police Department.
A spokesperson from the department said that the department no longer employs Ramelle Wallace, though they could not further comment on the matter. The spokesperson did not say whether or not Wallace was fired or resigned of his own volition.
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Wallace was the officer who arrested one of the co-owners of Bar:PM, Chad Morris, and one of the first on the scene. It is not clear who was driving the police vehicle that crashed into Bar:PM in December of last year.
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Javad Khazaeli, the lawyer for Bar:PM co-owners James Pence and Morris, said that one of the officers quickly escalated the situation by going “to rage level 10,” leading to the arrest of one of his clients.
A video posted by the pair’s lawyers shows Pence introducing himself as the bar’s owner. Officer Wallace requests his ID, but Pence declines, insisting that he hasn’t done anything wrong.
Wallace then tells Pence to “have a good night,” which Khazaeli says implies that the officer refused to investigate unless Pence presented an ID. Pence continues to refuse to show his ID, prompting Wallace to accuse him of causing a “disturbance.” Wallace, along with another officer, then handcuffs Pence.
The person recording the incident asks why Pence was cuffed, to which Wallace responds that Pence was “creating a disturbance” by yelling. When the bystander requests Wallace’s badge number, the officer refuses and threatens, “Keep interfering, you’ll be in handcuffs too, clown.”
Morris was arrested and initially charged with felony assault on an officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors. When speaking to reporters after being released from custody, Morris reportedly had what appeared to be a black eye.
The St. Louis police department has given differing accounts of what caused the crash. The officer in question was not tested for intoxication, local NBC Affiliate KSDK reports that the latest word from the police is that another officer was distracted by using his police radio while driving, which is how the SUV crashed into the bar’s facade.
