Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday said he will use every available resource to stop the ongoing violence and vandalism across the state.
The statement comes after a retired St. Louis police captain was shot and killed by looters. The murder by a black individual, was streamed live on Facebook. David Dorn, who is African American, was responding to an alarm at Lee Pawn and Jewelry Store around 2:30 a.m. when he was shot and killed, police said. Dorn was protecting his friend’s businesses as rioters rampaged down the street.
Retired police captain David Dorn was killed while protecting a friend’s St. Louis business from looters.
No arrests have been made, and police Chief John Hayden, Jr. said officers are “actively working on identifying suspects.”
Dorn’s death came in addition to four St. Louis police officers being shot during rioting The image looters taking over the center’s of America’s largest cities has alarmed millions, even as sympathy is extended to the peaceful protests over the killing of George Floyd. The majority of the businesses looted and burned have been minority owned.
“I’ve called out the National Guard, and we’re going to strengthen up the National Guard,” Parson said. “We’re not going to have police officers, we’re not going to have the citizens of Missouri being shot in our streets in this state.
“This needs to come to an end, and there’s no better place than the state of Missouri to make it come to an end. Because we’re not going to allow people to be shot and killed in this state. I’ll use every resource I have to put an end to it.”
READ: 4 St. Louis police officers shot during protests Tuesday
Gov. Parson, a former sheriff, has already signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and activating the Missouri National Guard. On Tuesday, he said he would call up more than 1,000 troops for duty.
“We’ve got to find a solution to the behavior that’s going around in the state of Missouri,” Parson said. “It has to stop. And there has to be a difference between protesters being legally out there protesting and criminals disguised under the umbrella of a protest. The people that want to protest, they need to protest, and when that protest is over, they need to go home and leave the people that want to be criminals, you leave them there, and we’ll take care of that.”
“Things need to be done differently in society. We need to address issues that the African American community might have — but not through violence, not through the actions we’re seeing out there on the streets.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice