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St. Louis city and police leaders draw anger for response to killingST. LOUIS, Aug 22, 2012 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The father of a college student robbed at gunpoint mere blocks away and hours after a woman was fatally shot in the Central West End on Saturday is accusing police and city leaders of playing down crime there. About six blocks from where Megan Boken, 23, was shot to death in her car, four Washington University students were robbed at gunpoint about 12:40 a.m. Sunday, police said. The robber ordered the students to drop their belongings and took wallets, purses, an iPhone and jewelry before trying to rob two more people walking nearby. The robber also fired a shot at the two others as they ran off, police said. The robber left the scene in a large newer-model maroon SUV driven by a second man, said police, who had only vague descriptions of the pair. Police Chief Dan Isom said Monday during a news conference that robberies are "very, very rare" in that neighborhood, citing only 11 there in the past year. Isom's remarks angered Bill Boudoures, 52, of Ladue, whose daughter Anna, 22, was among the Washington University students robbed. "It's the jewel of the city," he said of the neighborhood. "I guarantee there's a lot more going on down there than what's being reported. Somebody needs to be held accountable, and (residents) need to be protected and not be misled that nothing's going on ... It just makes me sick." On Tuesday, police spokesman David Marzullo said the 11 robberies Isom mentioned actually have occurred since July 1. Three of the robberies involved shoplifting, in two cases the victims and suspects knew each other, and six were street robberies, Marzullo said. Robbers used a gun in five of the street robberies, and police have made only one arrest in those cases. Marzullo said Isom was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but added, "Compared to the rest of the city, there's not that many robberies." The city police website lists 25 armed robberies in the Central West End from January through July. Police aren't sure if the robbery of the Washington University students is connected to Boken's killing and have not made arrests in either case, Marzullo said. Boudoures said his daughter, a doctoral student at Washington University and a Central West End resident, was even more shaken given Boken's killing. "Who knows if it wasn't the same guy " Boudoures asked. "It could have been my daughter" who was murdered. Boken was a 2011 St. Louis University graduate and volleyball player in town for job interviews and an alumni match on campus Saturday afternoon. Initially, Mayor Francis Slay's press secretary, Kara Bowlin, posted on Twitter that Boken appeared to know her killer. Witnesses initially told police he was seen in the driver's seat of her car arguing with her. Later witness statements and evidence have since shown the shooting apparently began as an attempted robbery, police said. Boken's purse strap had been broken, and she was fatally shot while in the driver's seat. Boken's family believes Bowlin's tweet could have jeopardized the case, said Boken's aunt, Kathleen Rezzo, who lives in the Los Angeles area. The suggestion that Boken knew her killer "besmirches her and makes people think, 'That's what she gets for hanging around with thugs,'" she said. "And it might cause someone with information not to give it up because they thought it wasn't needed." Slay's chief of staff Jeff Rainford said Bowlin's intent was to get information out to the public as quickly as possible not play down the incident because, "let's face it, a stranger-on-stranger crime is a lot more scary." "People demand information when a crime like this happens, and they are entitled to it," Rainford said. "Now that we know the information was wrong, even though we reported it accurately at the time, the mayor has apologized." On Monday, Slay told reporters: "The idea is to try to communicate information. But it's important the information is accurate when it goes out. The information that was put out in this particular case was put out prematurely." Rezzo said Boken got into her car while talking on a cellphone with her mother, Lisa Boken, who lives in Wheaton, Ill. Lisa Boken suddenly heard some muffled, "excited" voices and shuffling before the call ended. The woman tried to call her daughter back but got no answer, Rezzo said. She summoned her other daughter, Megan Boken's older sister, who also was in St. Louis for the game, to find out what happened. When the sister arrived, she saw crime scene tape and police surrounding the bloodstained car. Rezzo sent Slay an email at 9 a.m. Sunday that stated in part: "Because of your idiocy, witnesses who may have come forward early on did not, thinking this was some sort of domestic dispute and assumed the police knew who it was or could figure it out easily." Slay responded about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, saying in part, "I apologize for any additional pain we caused you and your family. It was never our intention to do so. As you can imagine, the people of this neighborhood wanted to know right away whether this was a random act or not." Rezzo said Slay's words seemed genuine. "He didn't try to excuse it or modify it; he didn't try to spin it," she said. Meanwhile, reward money in Boken's case mounted Tuesday to at least $31,000 for tips leading to an arrest. Police ask that anyone with information call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477. ___ (c)2012 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |