Two videos that show the early moments of a 2022 shooting at two St. Louis magnet schools will be released to the public on Wednesday.
“The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is responsible for upholding the law, and we must follow it, which is why we are releasing these two videos,” Chief Robert Tracy said Monday at a news conference announcing the plan to make some of the footage public under open records law. “But it’s not something we take any joy in doing to retraumatize people.”
A former student at CVPA shot and killed two people and injured seven more on Oct. 24, 2022, before he was killed by police. One victim, 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell, was a dance major at the school. Jean Kuczka, 61, taught physical education and health at CVPA, and coached the cross-country team at Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. The two schools share a campus at 3125 S. Kingshighway, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Taken together, the videos provide the best summary of what happened during the shooting, Tracy said. The first video, which is about nine minutes long, shows the shooter moving through the school. It has no audio except for a clip of a dispatcher telling police about an active shooter at the school.
The second video is from the body-worn camera of one of the first officers into the building, said Maj. Janice Bockstruck, the commander of the unit that investigates officer-involved shootings. That clip, which is about two minutes long, includes audio and video of the shootout between police and the suspect.
The Force Investigative Unit completed its report over the weekend, Bockstruck said. She added that it will take a few weeks for the department to redact some information from the 700 pages before it is released publicly.
Supporting students and staff
St. Louis Public Schools was aware of the timeline for the video release and had prepared students and staff at the two schools, said Matt Davis, vice president of the district’s Board of Education.
“We are concerned that the release of the video at this time will retraumatize people in our community. And we know that they've been working very hard on dealing with their trauma, and everybody's in a different spot, in a different place,” Davis said.
The SLPS school year begins Aug. 19.
The families of Bell, Kuczka and the other victims had a chance to view the video before it was released, as did the family of the suspect. The district also arranged for staff at the schools to view the video if they wished – officials said 35 to 40 people did so.
The first police officers into the building were able to view the video ahead of time, and a department spokesperson says about a half-dozen accepted the offer. Mental health support, including counselors and therapy dogs, was on hand.
“We must continue to remind ourselves, and especially our young people, that it is OK not to be OK,” Mayor Tishaura Jones said Monday.
Available resources
- People who are experiencing an immediate mental health crisis or thought of self-harm or suicide can call or text 988, the nationwide suicide and crisis hotline.
- Locally, people can call 314-657-1585 to be put in contact with the city’s Behavioral Health Bureau, which can also be reached at behavioralhealth@stlouis-mo.gov.
