Officer, suspect killed in police chase crash near St. Louis
BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORS, Mo. – A police detective and a suspect he was trying to stop have both died in a head-on collision of their vehicles near St. Louis, authorities said.
The crash happened Wednesday afternoon after officers with the St. Louis County sheriff ’s department’s drug unit tried to stop a car that had been reported stolen, police said. The car fled, and police gave chase.
An unmarked police vehicle driven by Detective Antonio Valentine responded and was traveling eastbound toward the chase when the suspect’s speeding westbound car crossed the center line and collided with Valentine’s vehicle in Bellefontaine Neighbors, a suburb just north of St. Louis, officials said.