The St. Ann Police are under fire after they chased down a college student, who they believed to be a man with 17 arrest warrants. It turns out that he was the wrong person all along.
According to KMOV, Joseph Sink was in his car being chased by police, when he crashed the vehicle in an attempt to flee.
The site reports that the cops were looking for Anton Simmons, and found out, after the incident, that the right person had been taken into custody.
“They ended up grabbing him [Swink], tossing him to the ground, and were trying to handcuff him,” said St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez. “All the sirens and lights were going off. It was very loud and they couldn’t hear anything the citizen was saying.”
Swink is an accounting student at UMSL with no criminal record and was on his way home from an internship when he was accidentally involved in the pursuit.
Police say they were able to get him into custody using the least amount of force necessary, but when they finally had him in handcuffs on the ground, they heard on their radios that the real suspect was in custody at a different location.
Swink suffered severe damage to his ear and his vehicle was totaled.
The Chief of St. Ann police offered Sink an apology, and revealed that they are going to make changes to their radio system in order to better officers’ communication.
Simmons was arrested and charged with assault, armed criminal action, and property damage, and was booked in jail on $100,000 bond.
SOURCE: KMOV | PHOTO CREDIT: Facebook
