Press "Enter" to skip to content

St. Louis County Police Association sponsors fundraiser for victim’s family

The St. Louis County Police Association is raising money for a mother whose 5-year-old son was killed last week.

Joe Patterson, executive director of the association, said the case personally touched the officers who handled it. 

“The association’s members deal with tragedies and violence on a daily basis, unfortunately,” Patterson said. “Certain cases really, truly affect the investigators themselves who are also mothers and fathers, and this is one of those cases.”

The fundraiser will go toward the mother of a child who was killed last week in St. Louis County. Patterson said the 5-year-old boy, who was blind and suffered from physical disabilities, was taken to the hospital by his mother’s boyfriend, where he succumbed to his injuries while she gave birth to her third child in another hospital. The boyfriend was arrested and charged with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death. 

“The detectives that handled the case were extremely touched by the tragedy of the case itself and by the family, so they reached out through the unit to ask what could be done to help the family through this time,” he said. “It was determined the best course of action was to sponsor a fundraiser, with the association being the first donor and encouraging others in the community to follow suit.”

Patterson said the funds would go toward burial costs as well household and holiday expenses for the family. 

The association has sponsored fundraisers for victims and families before, though Patterson said he wished they could do it for every family. 

“Now you’ve got his mother, a few days before the holidays, who has a newborn baby and a 7-year-old and just lost a son,” Patterson said. “We wanted to do what we could to help them through this.”

He said the initial fundraising goal had been $25,000 but increased to $40,000 after the threshold was passed after the first couple of days. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 550 people have contributed, donating $34,000.

The St. Louis County Police Association represents nearly 1,000 police officers and civilians in the community.