U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig has sentenced Dexter McKinnies to 25 years in prison for shooting at St. Louis County Police Department officers in 2020. The incident occurred on September 1, 2020, when McKinnies fired at police officers, including members of the FBI Violent Crime Safe Streets Task Force, who were attempting to arrest him.
Police had been investigating multiple violent crimes and were trying to locate Dexter McKinnies. They discovered that his brother, Lawton McKinnies, had an active felony arrest warrant for three counts of first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action.
Officers set up a meeting under false pretenses, leading the McKinnies brothers to believe they would be performing maintenance work on a property. When Lawton arrived at the meeting, he was arrested and found with a 9mm pistol. Meanwhile, Dexter fired several shots from across the street with a 9mm pistol, hitting an FBI truck before officers returned fire and struck him.
Both brothers are convicted felons prohibited from possessing firearms. Dexter McKinnies pleaded guilty in November to five felonies: one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts each of assault on a federal officer and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Lawton McKinnies pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and received a three-year prison sentence. He was also sentenced to an additional year for violating his supervised release.
The case was investigated by the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donald Boyce and Nichole Frankenberg prosecuting.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which aims to reduce violent crime and gun violence by bringing together law enforcement agencies and communities. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched an enhanced violent crime reduction strategy focusing on trust-building within communities, supporting violence prevention organizations, setting strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring outcomes.
