Holly MatkinSt. Louis, MO – The looters who murdered a retired St. Louis police captain outside a pawn shop early Tuesday morning also broadcast his murder on Facebook Live.
Numerous social media users posted comments about having watched the horrific video, which has since been removed from Facebook, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“What I just witnessed on several lives has me sickened to my stomach,” former St. Louis Police Officer Marquaello Futrell wrote in a Facebook post.
“The man just was shot and killed outside of Lee’s Pawn and Jewelry,” Futrell added. “It’s one thing to be a victim of a robbery/assault but to lie in [your] own blood pleading for help and no help comes other than people standing around on FB Live recording his death. All over social media. I’m upset and can’t sleep!”
The body of 77-year-old retired SLMPD Captain David Dorn was found lying in the 4100-block of Martin Luther King Drive outside Lee’s Pawn and Jewelry store at approximately 2:30 a.m., KMOV reported.
He had been fatally shot in the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to KSDK.
Police subsequently discovered that the pawn shop had been looted.
“One of the people murdered last night was a retired St. Louis City Captain. He was murdered by looters at a pawnshop,” the Ethical Society of Police tweeted hours later. “He was the type of brother that would’ve given his life to save them if he had to.”
Retired Capt. Dorn’s widow, Add Marie Dorn, said her husband was friends with the owner of the pawn shop and that he also worked for him, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
She said he often responded to the shop when the burglar alarm was triggered.
Capt. Dorn served SLMPD for 38 years before he retired in 2007, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
He was last assigned as the Bureau of Patrol Support deputy commander, and was tasked with overseeing the tactical unit, commercial vehicles, mounted patrol and traffic unit.
He also spent time serving as the chief of police in Moline Acres.
The investigation into the retired captain’s death is ongoing, KMOV reported.
Four police officers were also shot in downtown St. Louis early Tuesday morning amid rioting in the city.
SLMPD Chief John Hayden told reporters that the officers were standing near a police line when they were suddenly shot. After the gunman or gunmen opened fire on the police, they were able to get away and they remain at large.
The rioting in St. Louis intensified Monday night with rioters launching explosives at police throughout the night.
Rioters also set fire to buildings with continued looting.
The rioting comes after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was arrested on May 29 and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in connection with George Floyd’s death.
Officers had responded to a call about a counterfeit $20 that Floyd had allegedly used to make a purchase at a deli.
Store employees pointed out the suspect to police and they arrested him.
The complaint used to charge Chauvin said Floyd actively resisted arrest and then fought being put in the back of a police car once he had been handcuffed.
Viral cell phone video showed then-Officer Chauvin and three other officers holding Floyd on the ground.
The video showed Officer Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, during which time the suspect lost consciousness.
Chauvin remained on Floyd’s neck for almost three minutes after he was unresponsive.
Floyd was pronounced dead 90 minutes later at the hospital.
After three days of violent riots and looting that left Minneapolis and its sister city, St. Paul, in flames, the state investigative agency announced it making an arrest.
Chauvin was taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension four days after the incident and held on a $500,000 bond, Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington announced, according to WCCO.
According to charging documents, the medical examiner’s preliminary report found no physical evidence that Floyd had suffered from asphyxiation or strangulation at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
The charging documents state, “The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”