Two teens on Tuesday were charged with involuntary manslaughter after an auxiliary police officer fell 50 feet to his death while chasing them.
Ricardo Davis, 44, an auxiliary officer from Washington Park, Illinois, was running after Valention Miller and Chaun'tuan Gillespie, both 19, on foot on Saturday when he jumped vaulted over a concrete barrier at the Poplar Street Bridge and fell down the 50-foot drop, police said.
Davis had been pursuing the two in a vehicle down Poplar Street Bridge in East St Louis, Illinois, when the teens allegedly crashed the car and ran off, according to officials. It was unclear what prompted the original traffic stop of the teens.
"The East St. Louis Police Department expresses our deepest sympathy to the community of Washington Park on the loss of Auxiliary Officer Ricardo Davis," the department said in a statement Tuesday. "May Ricardo’s friends and family find peace in his commitment to service."
The Illinois State Police are handling the investigation, according the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Both men were charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated use of a weapon and Miller was additionally charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, prosecutors said.
