Charges have been filed against a 24-year-old man who police believe fatally shot retired St. Louis police Capt. David Dorn, 77, on the sidewalk outside Lee’s Pawn and Jewelry early Tuesday morning.
Stephan Cannon, 24, of Glasgow Village, has been charged with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond.
As downtown St. Louis descended into violence and chaos Monday night into Tuesday morning, Dorn, also a retired municipal police chief, attempted to protect the pawn shop from looting. He was shot multiple times, and his killing was broadcast on Facebook Live.
According to a police probable cause statement, Cannon was seen on surveillance footage pulling up and entering the store with others, and then stealing several televisions. Once Dorn arrived at the store, Cannon walked toward the street corner with a gun in his hand.
“At the time the shots were fired, (Cannon) was the only person standing at that corner,” the probable cause statement reads. “Multiple plumes of smoke” could be seen coming from where Cannon was standing, and shell casings were recovered from that same spot, police said.
After Dorn fell to the ground, Cannon approached the entrance to the store, according to the police statement. A witness told police that someone told everyone in the store that they could leave, and looters fled from the back entrance.
A stolen television was later found where Cannon was arrested. He admitted to police that he changed his hair and appearance once he saw his image being distributed to the public.
“Based upon the diligent work of the police department, collaboration with the Circuit Attorney’s Office, and the cooperation from the outraged community, we have issued charges for the tragic murder of former Captain David Dorn,” a statement from the Circuit Attorney’s Office said.
Cannon was also charged with robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, three counts of armed criminal action and felon in possession of a firearm.
Cannon was charged in February with misdemeanor stealing in St. Louis. He is listed in Missouri court records under a different spelling of his name, Stephon Cannon, as pleading guilty to an August 2013 felony assault and felony robbery in St. Louis County. He completed a five-year probation in 2019.
Police also arrested Jimmie Robinson and charged him with burglary in the first degree, armed criminal action and stealing. He is being held on $30,000 cash-only bail.
Dorn retired from the St. Louis Police Department in 2007 after 38 years on the job. He rose from rookie patrol officer in 1969 to captain. He was the deputy commander of the Bureau of Patrol Support, which oversees traffic and mounted patrols, commercial vehicles and the tactical unit.
When he retired, Dorn then became police chief in Moline Acres.
He was friends with the owner of Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry and would show up at the shop when burglar alarms sounded to check on the building and make sure it was secure, his widow, Ann Marie Dorn, previously told the Post-Dispatch. He arrived at the shop early Tuesday to protect it during widespread unrest and violence in the city that night in the wake of the death of a black man while in police custody in Minneapolis.
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