St. Louis City worker hit by man running away from police recounts horrific incident
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Renee Richardt has been painting St. Louis City streets for 12 years.
She saw just how dangerous her job could be on December 12.
Richardt tells First Alert 4, “They paved 7th Street, so I was just kind of drawing in the lines that we’d come back later and paint.”
According to the probable cause, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s (SLMPD) Real-time command center got a hit on a car wanted in connection with an aggravated fleeing incident.
Police say 22-year-old Jorden Owens was driving a stolen car from a dealership in Illinois. He then sped away, blowing through a red light, and driving into oncoming lanes of traffic, police say.
“I heard sirens, and so I just kind of looked to the side as you would, you know, hearing sirens and. I just thought ‘jump.’ That was the only thing that went through my mind was jump,” states Richardt.
That jump may have saved the mother’s life. The car hit Richardt’s truck and broke her ankle. She also has two fractured vertebrae.
Owens allegedly ran off, but police caught and arrested him.
The city worker is left going through a painful recovery process and won’t be able to return to work for months.
Richardt says, “I can probably return doing that job physically. I don’t know if I can return to doing that job mentally.”
According to Richardt, this accident leaves the tight-knit painting department with only three people left painting city streets.
Meanwhile, Owens is in jail without the possibility of bond. He is expected back in court for a detention hearing Monday.
“I don’t know what happened to him in his childhood to make him have that kind of disregard for people,” says Richardt.
SLMPD later released the following statement:
“We are relieved to hear that the City employee is recovering. Detectives use extreme caution when making split-second decisions on whether to pursue a vehicle. In this case, the driver of the stolen car was reckless and posed a danger to our community and other motorists. The suspect was found in possession of a firearm modified with an auto-sear switch as well as a significant amount of suspected narcotics. "
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