St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 5

SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2002 ST. LOUIS P05T-DISRATCH 5 mcers muraer in off are fitars -t ft VU si J.B. FORBES POST-DISPATCH St. Louis Fire Department paramedics rush Otis Brooks to an ambulance after his van collided with a police car Thursday night at 25th Street and St. Louis Avenue.

Also injured in the crash was St. Louis Police Officer Jenna Christian. after a foot chase. Police were seeking a variety of charges against him Friday. Hampton showed up Friday morning at police headquarters with his mother and his pastor.

"I didn't have nothing to do with it, I was at my girlfriend's house at the time," Hampton told a reporter from KMOV (Channel 4) as he was handcuffed by detectives. Monica Hampton, his mother, acknowledged that her son was involved with trading and renting out stolen cars in their neighborhood but insisted he was not involved in the accident "I know my son," she said. "I can tell when he's lying. He looked at me straight in my eyes and told me he had nothing to do with it." She said she escorted her son to the police station out of concern that angry officers would hurt him. That, she said, is why she told a TV crew: "Anyone that is looking at my son right here, he is in good health, he doesn't have any scars on him and when I come to visit him, that is the way I want to see him." Officers draped the front of headquarters on Clark Avenue with black bunting Friday and slipped black mourning bands over their badges.

Barwick and Hampton had begun riding together about three months ago. Christian is known as a hard worker and Barwick as an aggressive officer with great instincts. They had stopped three suspects in a stolen auto the night before the crash; Christian had chased and caught a 16-year-old suspect who fled on foot. Barwick is to be buried in Licking, in south-central Missouri, where his parents grew up and his grandparents still live. He was born in St Louis, graduated from Pattonville High School and earned a bachelor's degree in criminology from the University of Missouri at St Louis.

He was commissioned on Sept 11, 2000. He previously was a guard at the President Casino downtown and worker as an assembler at the Chrysler plant in Fenton. Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. on Sunday and Monday at Collier's Funeral Home, 3400 North Lindbergh Boulevard in Bridgeton. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m.

Tuesday at Fee Fee Baptist Church, 11330 St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton. Burial will follow at Boone Creek Cemetery in Licking. Memorials may be made to the Backstoppers, Box 7717, Chesterfield, 63006. Heather Ratcliffe, Bill Smith and Tim O'Neil of the Post-Dispatch St.

Louis Officer Michael Barwick died Thursday night in a fiery crash as he and his partner chased a stolen Chrysler. Bv Jeremy Kohler Of the Post-Dispatch It was a Chrysler that Officers Michael Barwick and Jenna Christian saw in front of their St. Louis squad car Thursday night, and that alone would have drawn their attention. About 30 Chryslers have been stolen in the region in the past week. The partners had barely checked the license plate by radio when a dispatcher lost contact and one of the two punched the emergency button on a radio.

Barwick was dying, Christian was seriously hurt and two men in the fleeing Chrysler were on the way to being charged with murder for the traffic crash they had left behind. Police said Friday that those two fugitives were Deon Hampton, 18, and Stephion Sutton, 18, who allegedly are part of a ring that specialized in stealing Chryslers and then renting them out for $50 a day. Both were charged with felony murder, meaning responsibility for deaths resulting from a felony. They were being held Friday in the city police lockup. Ring members had discovered a vulnerability of new Chrysler models, said Police Chief Joe Mokwa, and increasing numbers were turning up abandoned.

Hampton, of the 2800 block of Stoddard Street, was driving a blue 2002 Chrysler Sebring about 10 p.m. Thursday that caught the eyes of Barwick and Christian, who were on patrol just north of downtown, Mokwa said. Sutton, of the 2900 block of James "Cool Papa" Bell Avenue, was in the passenger seat and four 14-year-olds two boys and girls were in back. Barwick, driving north on 25th Street, apparently sped up to read the license plates on the Sebring. A dispatcher told him the car was stolen but could not reach him again.

The police car had collided with a van headed east on St Louis Avenue, and both careened into a vacant lot on the corner. The car caught fire. Mokwa said police would conduct a detailed review. Until then, he said, it is not known how fast Barwick was, going and whether his siren and flashing lights were on. What is known, the chief said, is that Barwick did not announce on the radio that he was in pursuit Crash scene Two police officers were following a stolen car north on 25th Street when their car collided with a van traveling east on St.

Louis Avenue. There are stop signs for traffic on 25th but not for vehicles on St. Louis Avenue. fort to find it and, for that matter, look for other new Chryslers. Officers divided the city into grids for a search.

About two hours later, they found the Sebring parked in the 2600 block of McNair Avenue. Police went door-to-door for clues. At about the same time, officers near Virginia Avenue and Interstate 55 arrested a man getting into what police said was a stolen red Dodge Intrepid. It was Sutton. At the time, police did not connect him to the wreck.

Another break would come about a half hour later. Police pulled over another stolen Chrysler sedan. This one had four 14-year-olds, who confessed they had been in the stolen blue Sebring that eluded Barwick and Christian, police said. Under questioning, police said, the youths named Sutton and Hampton. Meanwhile, at the crash scene, police felt like they were under attack.

Just before midnight yet another stolen Sebring this one white sped by on St. Louis Avenue with a city officer in pursuit The car snapped through crime scene tape and sent investigators scrambling. Schron Granberry, a police department spokeswoman, said she left her shoe in the street as she scrambled to get out of the way. Police chased the white Sebring "We will chase vehicles that are involved in a crime and that we think the community is in danger by the actions" of the people in the car, Mokwa said. Barwick and Christian "were doing their jobs." Earnest Hegwood, owner of Ernie's Food Shop at 2902 North 25th Street, said he looked out a rear window of his house on nearby University Street moments before the crash.

He said he saw a car traveling at what seemed to be 100 mph on 25th Street pass through St Louis Avenue and run the stop sign. St. Louis Avenue traffic does not have a stop sign at 25th. Hegwood said a police car about 100 yards behind also ran the stop sign and collided with the van. He said he did not hear a siren.

Hegwood said he watched as the patrol car went airborne, flipped over, landed on its side and burst into flames. Barwick, 27, died later at St Louis University Hospital. Christian, 23, suffered a broken left arm, bruised lungs, a torn liver, facial cuts and a gash on her ear. She was recovering at the same hospital Friday after surgery to insert pins in her arm. Two other officers were injured as they pulled Christian and Barwick from the burning car.

Police declined to identify them. The driver of the van, Otis WAX MUSEUM 9 POST-DISPATCH day morning. His wife declined to comment Friday. The fleeing Sebring was chased SlliiS! "---WN, STOP SIGH i ft hair if m-tfm I iSTW DUPLEX St-Uuil 5 1 Ml down Interstate 70 and 55, then In- kl j- loi.