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 ...
I am not fond of rap either!
We could debate about all night. Some parts are the city are tolerable. I do have a problem with the leftist government that runs the city.
No doubt we will see lots of interviews with spokespersons from the Hip-Hop Community TM sharing their stories about young Kyle.
Sticking to the script, they'll say how he was "...turning his life around and helping his Mom..." and a couple other predictable soundbites.
~ Blue Jays ~
Is there a minimum distance that a police officer has to be dragged by a car before defending himself?
More's the pity for the citizens, true?
?
It "turned out to be stolen."
I hate it when that happens to me, I'm just driving along, and then it turns out that my car is stolen.
LOL. Or maybe it was parked by a cemetery, and he thought the owner was dead.
Standards have become so low now that the media can presents rappers as intellectuals.
A couple of months ago, I was involved with a thread in which rap music was being compared to country music. Country music may not be the most complex music on earth but at least singing and choords are involved. Also country music is more wholesome and patriotic than rap. Was an interesting thread.
Someone had to bring this up so why not me?
The commom denominator in alot of these incidents is there is no father in the house. With about a 70% out-of-birth wedlock in the black community, its a real problem to us all.
My father is 82 years old and still plays the part. I don't always agree with him but its something about an older male running the show that brings stability to a household.
How true.
Notice how there are alot LESS citizens in St. Louis now than in 1943? You don't think that the citizens who had left had a belly-full of democratic rule do you? .
Always glad to hear from you SAJ. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
Slay is a better manager than the past three mayors. My dad does business in the city and says things have got better in that respect.
Slay still panders to the radicals and criminal element.
Had a very nice T-day with the family, I hope yours was the same, and Happy Hols to you!
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