Following a 2008 shootout in Granite City involving off-duty St. Louis police officers and an innocent man, the City of St. Louis is on the hook for $250,000, Missouri Lawyers Weekly has reported, following a Sunshine request.
As we reported two years ago, city cop Bryan Pour entered a skirmish outside Mac N' Micks Sports Bar and Grill in November 2008, drew his weapon and shot Jeffrey Bladdick, of Granite City. (A second St. Louis officer -- Christopher Hantak -- was shot by a Pontoon Beach police officer when he refused to drop his weapon.) All the victims survived the ordeal. Pour later claimed he was acting in self-defense after being attacked by bar patrons and mistakenly shot Bladdick in the process. Pour, Hantak and a third officer involved in the fight were later terminated from the police force.
Bladdick filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District of Southern Illinois against Pour, the city and members of the Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the police department, alleging violations of his constitutional rights and negligence. A settlement between Bladdick and the city was reached April 6, according to Missouri Lawyers Weekly. The case was dismissed on Wednesday.
In Madison County Court, Pour was initially charged with a Class X felony that could have carried with it term of 60 years in prison. He later was sentenced to four years' probation after Bladdick accepted the officer's explanation that the shooting was an accident. Bladdick asked the court to show leniency.
