Posted on 11/28/2003 5:06:33 PM PST by Missouri
Pine Lawn police officer kills 17-year-old rap performer By Bill Bryan Post-Dispatch 11/28/2003
Kyle Dismukes, a young rapper from Overland, recently cut a CD aptly titled "Streets Tell It All."
Shortly after performing songs from the CD at the Cougars nightclub in Normandy, Dismukes was shot to death early Thursday by a Pine Lawn police officer after a traffic stop in the 2700 block of Kienlen Avenue.
The officer said he had stopped Dismukes' car for a traffic violation about 1:45 a.m. but that the youth grabbed his arm as he approached the driver's window and sped away, with the officer clinging to the door.
The officer said he could not break free and fired into the car with his free hand after he was dragged for some distance, including when Dismukes, 17, made a U-turn in the street.
The officer's name was not disclosed.
The shooting was being investigated Thursday by St. Louis County police, who said they found a handgun in Dismukes' car.
Thursday's incident was the second fatal shooting in two weeks of a St. Louis County teenager who apparently was trying to flee from police. On Nov. 16, Byron Harmon, 15, was fatally shot when two St. Louis County officers fired into a car at a trailer park on St. Charles Rock Road.
The officers said they fired because their safety was jeopardized, but a friend of Byron's who was in the car said Byron panicked and was simply trying to get away. The car Byron was driving turned out to be stolen.
Dismukes' mother, Cynthia Montgomery, 48, of Overland, said she wants a thorough investigation of the shooting.
"I want to know why they shot him. I find their account unbelievable," she said. "I'm not satisfied."
Dismukes was the youngest of Montgomery's six children, she said.
"He was a very loving person who was kind and intellectual," she said. "My son was very smart and a very good person."
Dismukes had been a rap performer since he was a little boy, his mother said.
He attended an alternative high school operated by the Ombudsman program and affiliated with Normandy High School.
One of Dismukes' sisters, Tamika Dismukes, 27, said she, too, wanted a better explanation from the police.
"We're getting the runaround from the police," she said. "They've been very vague."
County police isssued a news release describing the shooting but refused to comment further on Thursday, citing the Thanksgiving holiday.
Several of Dismukes' friends gathered in the street Thursday in the 6200 block of Bailey Place in Hillsdale where Dismukes often stayed. Bailey is just a few blocks from the shooting scene.
One close friend of the slain teen locked herself in an SUV with her head buried in her hands as she listened to the blaring music of Dismukes' CD.
Friends of Dismukes said he had been driving a 2001 Mercedes that belonged to a friend when he was shot, and some suggested that the fact that the car was a luxury vehicle may have been the reason the officer stopped it.
One man who would not give his name said he had been driving behind the police car and witnessed the incident. He said the officer fired almost immediately when Dismukes drove away, with the officer clinging to the door.
"The officer grabbed the door and Kyle hit the gas pedal, and the car came to a stop a short distance away," said the man, indicating a distance of perhaps 30 yards. The man said he didn't hear any gunfire but added that "the cop must have shot him right away" because of where the car stopped.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
He lived the life he rapped about and he died the way he rapped about.
"My son was very smart and a very good person."
And these statements:
"The car Byron was driving turned out to be stolen."
"He attended an alternative high school operated by the Ombudsman program and affiliated with Normandy High School."
don't match up. He doesn't sounds like a very smart or good person at all to me.
The story is so poorly written that it is easy to miss the fact that there are two different incidents and two different kids being discussed.
The second kid who was killed a few weeks ago was driving a stolen car.
And it was kind of a drag.
She's probably wondering who the father is.
"The officer said he had stopped Dismukes' car for a traffic violation about 1:45 a.m. but that the youth grabbed his arm as he approached the driver's window and sped away, with the officer clinging to the door. The officer said he could not break free and fired into the car with his free hand after he was dragged for some distance, including when Dismukes, 17, made a U-turn in the street."
Songs? Rap is not singing.
I've heard Ted Nugent say the same thing.
Well, gee whillikers... looks like ol' Kyle was dead right 'bout that one, don't it though...? :)
No mention of how the "performance" was received by the patrons of said club.
Could it be that he was extremely po'd by the response and was driving erratically because he was emotionally distraught?
City cops have their hands tied in fighting crime. The county's prosecuting attorney, Bob McCullochs father was a cop who was killed in the line of duty. I've yet to see him back down from any of the civil rights hustlers that try to make headway here in the county. He's a democrat but at least he sticks up for the police.
And his next CD will be titled "Dead rappers tell no tales".
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