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Suspect in Berkeley cop shooting surrenders
July 23, 2009 - The search continued in St. John for Devante Thomas, wanted in the shooting of a Berkeley police officer on Wednesday as officers from multiple jurisdictions and a police helicopter recovered a stolen car in the process. The helicopter landed briefly in Lake Charles Memorial Park cemetery on N. Hanley during the search. (Robert Cohen /P-D)By Heather Ratcliffe
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
07/24/2009
CLAYTON • A University City man whose children were palling around with a teenager wanted in the shooting of a Berkeley police officer talked the 16-year-old into surrendering Monday after seeing his picture on the news.
The man, whom police did not identify, arrived with the boy at the St. Louis County Justice Center just before 3 p.m.
Officers from dozens of police departments had been looking for Devante Thomas after investigators identified him as the suspect in the shooting of Berkeley police Officer Donald Schultz, 28.
"It’s a breath of relief that no other lives were put in jeopardy," Berkeley Police Chief Frank McCall Jr. said after the teen’s arrest. "Now we are able to move forward."
The Post-Dispatch normally does not identify juveniles or people not charged with a crime. In this case, authorities consulted with a juvenile judge before releasing Thomas’ name and determined that his identity should be released for public-safety reasons.
Police said officers had been looking for Thomas, who had been reported missing as a runaway, when he fired on Schultz about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday near McDonnell Boulevard and Natural Bridge Road in Berkeley.
Thomas was not injured during the gunfight in which both police and Thomas fired their weapons. The chase crossed Natural Bridge Road and entered the wooded Washington Park Cemetery, where the teen disappeared.
Police scoured neighborhoods from Florissant to the St. John area with dogs and a helicopter for days looking for the suspect.
Investigators still don’t know where he was for most the time he was missing.
Witnesses told police he showed up at a home in University City on Sunday where some former classmates lived, St. Louis County police Lt. Thomas Larkin said.
The former classmates’ father asked his children and the suspect to help him move some furniture that day. Later that evening after Thomas left, the father saw his face on a television news report.
Thomas returned the next day, and the father talked to him for a while before driving him to the jail, Larkin said.
"The man just took a personal interest and talked him into surrendering," Larkin said.
The man who brought the teen to the jail could be eligible for the $5,000 reward that the FBI posted in the case.
"He was just doing the right thing and may not have even known about the money," said St. Louis County police Officer Rick Eckhard.
Thomas, who is in the custody of St. Louis County Family Court officials, will have a detention hearing in the next few days. A family court judge will have to decide whether he should be tried as an adult in the case. The process usually takes several months.
McCall said he won’t comment about whether the case should be moved into the adult court system.
"This juvenile committed an adult offense," McCall said. "But I’m prepared to work within the parameters of the judicial system."
