Fired Florissant Police Officer Charged With First-Degree Assault

A now-fired Florissant police officer has been charged with first-degree assault after officials said he drove his unmarked police vehicle into a man earlier this month.

St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar also charged former officer Joshua Smith with assault in the fourth degree and armed criminal action. Lohmar took over the case after the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office cited a conflict of interest.

“This is a case where we have had these situations before where a police officer was not involved but where someone used a vehicle as a weapon,” Lohmar said Wednesday. “In those circumstances we’ve always charged it with assault first degree and armed criminal action.”

A doorbell video of the June 2 incident shared by Real STL News days later showed Smith hitting the victim with his car. A second video shared this week showed the vehicle with its headlights on directly striking the victim, whom officials have not identified. The video shows Smith getting out of his car and kicking the man.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/fired-florissant-police-officer-charged-first-degree-assault