Suspect Dead, Officers Injured After Confrontation In Berkeley

KSDK -- A Berkeley man was killed and two police officers injured after a confrontation in North County Thursday night.
The man, 31-year-old Craig Foster, had been wanted on drug charges. The officers were assigned to serve him with a warrant, but police said everything changed as soon as Foster pulled into his neighborhood. He stopped his car on Graham Lane and police approached.

"The individual exited the car with a handgun in his hand," said Rick Eckhard, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department. "The officer, the first officer, tackled him to the ground."

Police said Foster kept fighting, so other officers joined in.

"It was a physical fight that they were in with this individual," Eckhard said. "They were fighting to get the gun away; they were fighting for their lives."

But Foster's uncle sees it differently.

"Why did they repeatedly, simultaneously, kick the man while he's down on the ground?" Rio Brown asked.

Foster's neighbor sent Brown a cell phone video of the confrontation.

"I can tell there's a whole lot of police officers around him and I can see him on the ground," Brown said as he watched the video. "It just opened up my eyes to what happened for real. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to look and see that the cops were in the wrong."

At some point, Foster just stopped fighting. He was unresponsive. A detective did CPR on him until an ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital. Foster died a short time later.

"To take someone from a small family, it's taking something so big. It's like taking my mama," Brown said.

Two officers were also injured in the brawl but police say it could have been worse.

"The officers definitely felt they were being threatened when that individual got out of the car with the gun," Eckhard said. "It was very dangerous. We were just very fortunate that none of them were hurt more than they were."

One officer broke his rib during the fight and another has bite marks and abrasions. Both officers were treated at the hospital and released.

The medical examiner said he will conduct an autopsy to see how Foster died and the county added it would continue its investigation into the incident.
KSDK