ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis police officer who was shot more than half a dozen times after pulling over a car last week is recovering and has been upgraded to fair from critical condition, according to the police department.
Police on Tuesday also released the mug shot of the man charged in the Thursday morning shooting of Officer Joseph Haman.
Arvon Lamont Brown, 24, of Bel-Ridge, was charged Thursday with first-degree assault on a police officer and armed criminal action. Police say he resisted arrest after he was located Thursday night and was injured as he struggled with officers, who tried unsuccessfully to subdue Brown with a Taser before eventually getting handcuffs on him.
Brown put up “significant resistance” and said he was “not going to jail,” police said. He swung his fists at and kicked police officers, according to the department. A charge of felony resisting arrest was added Friday.
The mug shot was taken Friday, after Brown was arrested Thursday night. He was first taken downtown to police headquarters that night, but complained he was hurt and had neck pain. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment, then brought back for booking.
Brown’s bond was set Tuesday at a total of $525,000. That’s a $500,000 cash-only bond on the assault and armed criminal action charges, and $25,000 on the resisting arrest charge. Of that, $20,000 is cash-only, and $5,000 is secured.
About 8:30 Thursday morning, Haman, 26, stopped a car with four people inside at a gas station at Natural Bridge Avenue and North Grand Boulevard. The officer got the driver out of the car and was talking with him on the passenger side when the officer and a backseat passenger exchanged words.
The passenger opened fire on Haman, who dived over the hood of his car to take cover and returned fire. He emptied his 16-round magazine toward his attacker, a police source said. Brown was not hit, a department spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Haman was shot eight or nine times. He was wearing a bullet-resistant vest that probably saved his life, according to St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom.
Both the store’s security cameras and the officer’s camera mounted in his patrol car captured the incident on tape, both video and audio.
Haman is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq before joining the department.
