The never-ending string of public relations disasters for police departments in the suburbs of St. Louis continued late last week when police in St. Ann, Mo. beat the crap out of a college student who did nothing wrong and was attempting to be a good citizen.
The St. Ann police department has apologized for the error, local CBS affiliate KMOV reports.
Meanwhile, the victim of the police attack, Joseph Swink, suffered serious injuries to his face and an ear. The St. Ann police department also caused Swink to total his car.
Swink’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day occurred on Thursday on a stretch of Interstate 70, one of the St. Louis area’s many multi-lane highways.
Police officers were in hot pursuit of an actual criminal, Anton Simmons, who was wanted on 17 criminal warrants.
Swink, 22, crashed his car attempting to avoid police as he found himself amid the chase.
The University of Missouri — St. Louis accounting major was driving home from his internship at the time.
He has no criminal record.
St. Ann police chief Aaron Jimenez did his level best to explain to a KMOV reporter how the mix-up then escalated into a police beatdown.
“They ended up grabbing him, tossing him to the ground, and were trying to handcuff him,” Jimenez told the CBS station. “All the sirens and lights were going off. It was very loud and they couldn’t hear anything the citizen was saying.”
Police claimed they used the least amount of force necessary to arrest the innocent accounting student with no criminal record.
Here is the result of that use of minimal force:
St. Ann Police admitted to injuring and arresting the wrong person after a chase. http://t.co/RsEImOgo8B pic.twitter.com/y6jtpM7kt3
— KMOV (@KMOV) January 17, 2015
After the St. Ann police officers wrestled Swink to the ground, they heard a voice on their police radios saying that Simmons, the criminal they were actually chasing, was long gone and in a different location.
Presumably, the police were able to hear their police radios despite the insistence by Chief Jimenez that “it was very loud and they couldn’t hear anything” Swink was saying.
Swink is unhappy about the incident.
“I never really had 100 percent trust in police before,” he told KMOV. “But I really don’t now.”
Police eventually caught up with Simmons, arrested him and charged him with assault, armed criminal action and property damage.
Chief Jimenez noted that he has given an earnest and heartfelt apology for Swink’s suffering.
St. Ann, Mo. is about seven miles and two suburbs southwest of Ferguson, Mo., where police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, and where a night of incredibly intense violence bubbled up the night a grand jury’s decision not to prosecute Wilson was announced. (RELATED: Total Police Failure Brings Absolute Mayhem To Ferguson After Grand Jury Announcement)
Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.