UPDATE: The man shot by police has been identified as Kobie Davis, 25, of Urbana, Illinois.
ST. LOUIS — A 90-second video outside a downtown ӣƵ bar provides a glimpse of the brawl where an off-duty policeman fatally shot a man early Wednesday.
The officer works for a rural police department in Leadington, Missouri, about 60 miles south of ӣƵ. He was working security at the Wheelhouse bar, about two blocks west of Busch Stadium, when he tried to break up a fight outside.
VIDEO: Video of the shooting outside of Wheelhouse last night. Late night clubs and associated violence have no place in Downtown. …
— Citizens for a Greater Downtown ӣƵ (@Citizens4STL)
A recorded on a cellphone by a bystander was released by on social media Thursday. The group did not say who took the video.
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Most people are milling about, watching the fight. A group of six to 10 men are chasing after another in the street. They tackle him to the ground, and an off-duty officer appears to try to break up the fight, pushing one man away and pointing at the men to leave.
The footage pans the crowd, from left to right. At one point in the video, someone is shouting what sounds like, “Drop it, drop it.”
The video briefly focuses on another skirmish off to the right, then two shots are heard, and the camera pans back to where the officer stood.
“Oh,” someone in the crowd exclaims. People in the street scatter.
One man wearing a black jacket marked “Police” is seen pointing a gun as he walks toward someone on the ground. Three more shots are heard. A man groans.
A half-dozen witnesses surround the injured man. A woman is wailing.
From that point on, the person taking the video is more concerned with a man on the sidewalk complaining he can’t see because he was hit with pepper spray.
At least three people in the crowd are wearing jackets marked “Police.” None of the off-duty officers working security there was an employee of the ӣƵ Police Department, officials said.
ӣƵ police spokesman Mitch McCoy said the video appears to be authentic. Police are reviewing it and other evidence as part of their investigation. They have yet to identify the man who died or the officer who shot him.
McCoy said investigators recovered a gun from the dead man.
The shooting was just before 3 a.m. Wednesday outside the bar, at 1000 Spruce Street.
The ӣƵ Police Department’s Force Investigative Unit is investigating the shooting. According to city police, at least one of the off-duty officers working security used pepper spray. And during the fight, a 25-year-old man pulled a gun, police said.
The Leadington officer told investigators that he ordered the man to drop his gun. The Leadington officer was not hurt.
The man he shot died at a hospital. Another man, 26, was apparently injured when a bullet grazed him, police said. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
is a town of 800 people in St. Francois County. Mayor Dustin McKinney said the officer who shot the man in ӣƵ works part-time for the Leadington police force. The city is budgeted for five full-time officers but currently only has two full-time officers and a handful of part-timers.
The officer won’t be back at work until the investigation is complete, McKinney said.
The town’s police chief, Jerry Hicks, said he’s confident his officer acted properly.
“I’m positive that things are going to be okay,” he said. “I have faith in my officer.”
The officer has been with Leadington three years and was in law enforcement 15 years before that. “Community policing is one of his strongest points,” Hicks said. “He’s a good officer.”
Hicks said it’s normal for officers to travel far for secondary duties. Some drive 100 miles, he said, “because they’re looking at anywhere from $25 to $100 an hour” to work security for private companies.
The officer is “doing reasonably well. He was told to just kick back and rest and relax,” the chief said. “Take it day by day.”
Crime in Leadington is far different than the city of ӣƵ. There, officers generally work traffic enforcement, confiscate illegal drugs and respond to calls for thefts and break-ins, primarily on the weekends.
This is the first time any of the officers working for Hicks in his four years as chief has fired a weapon — on-duty or while working security elsewhere, he said.
“That’s the last thing our guys want to do, is pull that gun and pull that trigger,” Hicks said. “None of us want to see that. Sometimes we have to make those split-second decisions.”
Police shootings in the ӣƵ region in 2025
Outside a ӣƵ bar on New Year's Day. Inside a doctor's home in Fenton.
At least nine times in 2025, police across the ӣƵ region have shot a suspect.
Four of those shootings were fatal.
Here is a list of Post-Dispatch news articles about this year's police shootings.
Police found three people dead at a home in the 5100 block of Wells Avenue on Friday morning. Officers also killed a man in a shootout who is …
Eddie Washington, 28, was shot after wrestling with Overland police who confronted him on the parking lot of a Shell gas station.
ӣƵ County police shot and killed Dr. Aleksandr Lanis, 38, when he pulled a gun on them during an arrest at his home, authorities said.
ӣƵ police said an officer shot and injured Leslie Hopkins, 72, when Hopkins ran at police with a knife.
Vincent Lamont Simmons, 55, was shot in an alley after crashing a pickup at the end of a pursuit.
The sheriff said deputies tried to negotiate with 39-year-old Timothy L. Johnston, then fatally shot him when he fired a shot at them.
The 45-year-old man, armed with firearms, had barricaded himself inside a vehicle in the 3900 block of Summertime Drive, police said.
Police shot and injured the boy after they say heled officers on a car chase and drove the car into an officer.
Kobie Davis, 25, was killed by a Leadington, Missouri, police officer hired to work security for The Wheelhouse at 1000 Spruce Street.
ӣƵ consistently lands on lists of most dangerous cities, but readers need to carefully look at how such lists are prepared.
