FBI Archives - Missourinet

U.S. Attorney General: Since Operation Legend, St. Louis murder rate has declined by 49%

October 15, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has announced today in St. Louis that a federal operation has led to the arrests of more than 650 suspects – 34 of which are accused of murder. The federal effort, called Operation Legend, is named after a four-year-old Kansas City boy killed over the summer while sleeping.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr meets with members of the St. Louis Police Department Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, in St. Louis. The officers are among several in the department who have been shot in the line of duty this year. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, Pool)

The St. Louis initiative includes 124 agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FBI, ATF, DEA and U.S. Marshals Service. According to Barr, since the start of Operation Legend in St. Louis, the city’s murder rate has declined by 49% and reports of rape have dropped by 38%.

During today’s roundtable, Jeff Jensen, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, says his office has never prosecuted so many people in a short period of time.

St. Louis Police Chief Jon Hayden says the additional boots on the ground have been desperately needed.

“In an unprecedented surge of gun violence over the past sixteen weeks, St. Louis at its peak has averaged as many as 10 homicides per week, bringing us currently up to 212 homicides compared to 161 at the same time last year,” says Hayden.

He says nine officers and a retired police captain have been shot since June – two were killed.

“The violence which we have experienced this summer against our police officers is none like we have ever encountered in the history of our department,” he says. “In spite of this ongoing violence directed at our officers, they have continued to demonstrate a superior level of courage, dedication and restraint.”

The anti-crime program has been launched in nine U.S. cities. Barr says more than 5,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the effort started earlier this year.

Phone scammers impersonating FBI agents from Jefferson City; Missouri victim loses $100,000 (AUDIO)

September 23, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The FBI is warning Missourians about a new phone scam that fraudulently displays the FBI’s real telephone number on the victim’s caller ID.

Photo courtesy of the FBI

FBI St. Louis Division spokeswoman Rebecca Wu tells Missourinet that a St. Louis County victim lost their life savings of more than $100,000, after scammers posed as FBI special agents from Jefferson City.

“And they actually told the victim to search on the internet the phone number on the caller ID to verify,” Wu says. “And since the scammers spoofed a legitimate FBI office number, the result of course came back as the FBI, so that’s how they fooled the victim in the first place.”

The FBI is urging Missourians to be alert.

“End the call, look up the phone number independently. Don’t use the phone number that was given to you. Look up the phone number and then call that agency,” says Wu.

In the recent St. Louis County case, the FBI’s real telephone number appeared on the victim’s caller ID.

The scammers told the St. Louis County victim that their social security number had been stolen and used to purchase property and stocks in the victim’s name. The scammers also told the victim that to protect the victim’s money, they should wire their life savings to the “FBI” for safekeeping.

The FBI emphasizes that they will never ask or demand money for any reason.

Rebecca Wu says victims in scams like this must take immediate action. The FBI believes the scammers are calling others as well.

“If you’ve wired money and all of a sudden you think you’ve been scammed, the number one thing to do, and you have to do this immediately, is to call that bank that you use to try to recall the wire transfer,” Wu says.

The FBI also urges victims to file an online complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with FBI St. Louis Division spokeswoman Rebecca Wu, which was recorded on September 22, 2020:

Arsonist who threw Molotov cocktail into Missouri Planned Parenthood clinic sentenced to prison

September 2, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A man from mid-Missouri’s Columbia has been sentenced to five years in federal prison, for throwing a Molotov cocktail into Columbia’s Planned Parenthood clinic in early 2019.

43-year-old Wesley Brian Kaster pleaded guilty in November to two counts: maliciously using explosive materials to damage a building owned by an organization that receives federal financial assistance, and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

“This defendant’s (Kaster) criminal behavior placed the community in an unacceptable risk of danger. We will not tolerate the use of violence and arson as a means to achieve personal political or policy goals. This attack is the antithesis of everything for which the best ideals of this nation have always stood,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Garrison said, in a written statement.

Kaster was sentenced today in Jefferson City by U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes. There is no parole in the federal system, so Kaster must serve the entire five-year sentence.

Kaster faced a maximum sentence of 21 years in federal prison. He told U.S. Magistrate Judge Willie Epps Jr. in November that he took the actions because Planned Parenthood provided reproductive health services at that facility.

Federal prosecutors have said that surveillance video from Planned Parenthood and from neighboring businesses recorded Kaster starting at about 2:30 a.m. on February 10, 2019, when he placed a bucket inside the building that was later found to be to filled with gasoline. After a few attempts during the next hour, prosecutors say Kaster ignited a Molotov cocktail-type device inside.

The incident happened at the Planned Parenthood clinic on North Providence Road in Columbia.

Kaster has been in federal custody since his March 2019 arrest.

The Columbia Police Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and FBI investigated the case.

Parson to boost Missouri National Guard response to unrest

June 2, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson says more than 1,000 National Guard soldiers will be called up to help crack down on the violent and destructive turmoil going on around Missouri. On Saturday, the governor signed an executive order activating the National Guard to help with ongoing turbulence.

Gov. Mike Parson

Protests have sprung up in several Missouri cities since last week’s police brutality death of George Floyd, an African-American man from Minnesota. A white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes while the man was on the ground face down in handcuffs.

When night falls, the surroundings have become unruly in Kansas City and St. Louis. Four St. Louis police officers were injured during shootings Monday night and a retired officer there was killed by looters. News and police vehicles have been set on fire in both cities. Looters have broken into businesses and damaged property. Officers have been injured by flying objects. People in the crowd have been pepper spray and tear gas has been ignited.

During a press conference today, Parson says he’s not going to tolerate total chaos.

“We’re not going to have police officers, we’re not going to have citizens of Missouri being shot in our streets in this state and we’re going to put an end to it with whatever forces I have as governor of the state of Missouri. Whether that’s every member of the Highway Patrol, whether that’s every member of the National Guard, I will call them all out to stop the violence,” says Parson.

Brig. Gen. Levon Cumpton, the Adjutant General, says the state has more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers.

The governor, a former Polk County sheriff, says there must be law and order in America for people to survive.

“We all need to take a little more accountability,” he says. “I don’t care whether you’re an elected official, whether you’re an everyday citizen, whether you’re a mom, whether you’re a grandma or whoever you might be. You need to start standing up and protecting one another and not engage and not trying to create chaos and commit criminal activities. They’re really trying to change a cause that definitely needs to be changed. Things need to be done different in society. We need to address issues that the African-American community have, but not through violence – not through what we’re seeing out there on the streets.”

Parson thinks the behavior is organized crime that is different from the 2014 Ferguson riots.

“When all the sudden you’ve seen pallets of bricks show up or pallets of blocks that show up, you’re having a strategy where dumpsters are where you pull them out and you set them on fire, they know to try to burn police cars because it gets more of the media coverage, and their main focus is to try to get to the police stations or the law so they can disrupt the services there. So, they have a plan of how they do sweeps, they have a plan of how they attack police officers,” says Parson.

The FBI and its SWAT team, ATF and Missouri Highway Patrol are also helping on the ground in St. Louis.

Missouri National Guard, Missouri Highway Patrol and FBI helping to patrol St. Louis; curfew in effect (AUDIO)

June 2, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

St. Louis’ Public Safety Director has announced that the FBI, ATF, the Missouri National Guard, the Missouri Highway Patrol and other agencies arrived overnight to help patrol St. Louis, and will continue to do so until further notice.

Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards tells reporters that more than 200 people engaged in “persistent criminal activity” overnight. He says four St. Louis police officers were shot, and that a retired officer was killed by a looter.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol logo (courtesy of Patrol Lieutenant Collin Stosberg)

The four officers who were shot have been released from the hospital.

“To the criminals that inflicted crime on our city last night, we have your surveillance pictures,” Edwards says. “And I will use every tool available to me to count every freckle on your face until you have been identified and arrested.”

Edwards says the city also requested the FBI surveillance plane and the FBI swat team, and they also arrived overnight. The St. Louis County swat team is also assisting.

Edwards says his officers are frustrated when fellow officers tarnish their badge, referring to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. He says his officers joined in solidarity with protesters on Monday afternoon.

“Yesterday evening and throughout the early morning, many of the same protesters that our officers protected turned violent against them,” Edwards tells St. Louis reporters. He says they threw objects at officers and used fireworks against them.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson says has signed an executive order establishing a citywide curfew, after the overnight burning and looting. She says retired officer David Dorn was shot to death last night, outside a looted pawn shop.

Mayor Krewson describes what happened overnight as a riot, adding that it was “a terrible night for St. Louis.”

“What started as a very non-violent and peaceful demonstration and protest ended in looting, shooting, burning and attacks on law enforcement,” Krewson says.

She tells reporters that hundreds of vehicles were going to various locations.

As for the curfew, it takes effect tonight at 9 and goes until 6 a.m. It will continue daily until further notice.

“9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning, everybody needs to be off the streets, you need to be at home,” says Krewson.

There are exceptions to the order. They include those traveling to and from work, government employees performing work assignments, the news media and those traveling for medical treatment. The homeless are also exempt.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner also spoke today, saying that while she wants peaceful protesters to continue to make their voices heard, she will use the full power of law to prosecute those who shoot and murder police officers.

Prosecutor Gardner also urged peaceful protesters to help her office “root out those whose actions work directly against justice for all.”

Southeast Missouri man indicted on federal hate crime and arson charges for mosque fire

May 12, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A federal grand jury in Cape Girardeau has indicted a southeast Missouri man for an alleged arson fire in April at the Islamic Center of Cape.

A federal grand jury in Cape Girardeau has indicted 42-year-old Nicholas Proffitt on three counts (April 2020 booking file photo courtesy of the Cape Girardeau Police Department)

The April 24th blaze caused significant damage to the Cape Girardeau mosque and destroyed several apartments above the Islamic Center, which is located in the 200 block of Northwest End Boulevard.

A federal grand jury has indicted 42-year-old Nicholas J. Proffitt on three counts, involving a hate crime and arson charges. The two-page indictment charges Proffitt with damaging religious property because of the property’s religious character, using fire to commit a federal felony and damaging a building used in interstate commerce, through the use of fire.

Proffitt is scheduled to appear in federal court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday at 11:45 a.m.

The indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed on April 29. According to the criminal complaint, the Islamic Center of Cape Girardeau’s video security system observed Proffitt throwing multiple objects through a glass window, causing it to break. Proffitt allegedly threw two containers into the center, through the broken window, and then is accused of splashing liquid inside the center and igniting it.

The FBI and Cape Girardeau Police investigated the blaze, along with numerous other agencies. They include the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s office and the police department in southeast Missouri’s Perryville.

“The fact this fire damaged a place of worship during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is especially harmful,” FBI St. Louis Division Special Agent in Charge Richard Quinn said in a written statement in April. “Protecting the civil rights of all Americans, regardless of color or creed, is one of the top priorities of the FBI.”

Missouri man allegedly planning hospital bombing dies after FBI confrontation

March 26, 2020 By Missourinet Contributor

The FBI says a man shot and killed Tuesday in Belton, near Kansas City, was the subject of a monthslong domestic terrorism investigation and was actively planning a bombing. KMBC-TV in Kansas City reports agents were attempting to arrest Timothy Wilson, 36, in Belton. Wilson, who was armed with a weapon, was injured and taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Missouri man allegedly planning hospital bombing dies after FBI confrontation

According to the FBI, the investigation revealed Wilson was a potentially violent extremist, motivated by racial, religious and anti-government views. He was actively planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism, a bombing, and decided to accelerate his plan as a result of the current coronavirus health crisis. The FBI said Wilson considered various targets and ultimately settled on a hospital in an attempt to harm many people.

“Wilson had taken the necessary steps to acquire materials needed to build an explosive device. At all times during the investigation, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force kept close track of Wilson in order to protect public safety,” the FBI said in a news release.

The bureau said it was ready to arrest Wilson when he arrived to pick up what he thought was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. There was no actual bomb.

According to Don Ledford with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District, he says there is no probable cause arrest statement or court documents because no charges were ever filed.

View the FBI press release here.

Spring trial set for mid-Missouri “highly toxic poison” case

January 2, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

An April trial has been scheduled in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City for a mid-Missouri man who’s accused of trying to purchase a “deadly chemical.”

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Tim Garrison (2018 file photo courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s website)

44-year-old Jason William Siesser’s trial is set to begin on April 20 at the Christopher Bond U.S. Courthouse in Jefferson City. U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison announced charges against Siesser in August 2018, saying Siesser allegedly tried to purchase a highly toxic poison over the internet to use as a chemical weapon.

The U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman, Don Ledford, tells Missourinet that Siesser remains in federal custody. Siesser lived in Columbia, when he was arrested.

Garrison says federal agents became alerted to Siesser during an undercover FBI investigation. Siesser is charged in federal court with one count of attempting to possess a chemical weapon.

“There is no allegation in the charging document, that any sort of public attack was planned,” Garrison said in 2018, when the charges were announced. “Federal agents maintained safeguards from the time they were alerted to a potential threat during an undercover FBI investigation, to the controlled delivery of a safe, inert substance to the residence in Columbia.”

Federal prosecutors have not specifically said what the chemical is, except that it’s a highly toxic poison “capable of causing death in minute quantities.” The federal affidavit alleges Siesser purchased enough of the substance to be capable of killing about 300 people.

Court documents say Siesser signed for a package in August 2018, a package he allegedly believed contained the chemical he had ordered online. The court documents say Siesser acknowledged to the seller that he understood the chemical was lethal. Federal prosecutors say the package actually contained an inert substance.

The 11-page criminal complaint from federal prosecutors said that at the time of the 2018 arrest, Siesser was employed by a group home that houses juveniles under contract with the state of Missouri.

The complaint filed by prosecutors in 2018 also quoted Siesser as allegedly telling someone that he wanted to be an assassin, and wanted to kill those who have wronged him in the past.

The FBI raided Siesser’s Columbia home in 2018, and court documents say writing found inside the home “articulated heartache, anger and resentment over a breakup and a desire for the unidentified cause of the heartache to die.”

The court document quoted one of the writings as stating, in part: “But it makes me feel so strong I dream about your ending you burn up in flames. You suffocate on your own blood your soul completely drained. Right now your (sic) happy but that won’t last. My anger is coming and you won’t die fast!”

The federal affidavit says Siesser also wrote fictional stories about men trying to exact vengeance on ex-girlfriends. Court documents say that in one story, Siesser allegedly wrote about a man locking a woman in scuba gear in a submerged box so she would die when her oxygen tank was depleted.

The FBI and Columbia Police investigated the case.

Former pizza owner in St. Louis sentenced to 65 years in prison for child sex charges

December 27, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The former owner of a pizza restaurant in St. Louis is heading to federal prison, after being sentenced Friday to 65 years on child sex-related charges.

50-year-old Loren Copp, who owned Dojo Pizza on Morganford Road, was sentenced for production and possession of child pornography, along with the use of interstate facilities to coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Copp was convicted in December 2018 on eight counts of child sexual exploitation and enticement involving four victims.

Federal prosecutors say Copp groomed and sexually abused two minor females who had been in his custody since 2009. Prosecutors say he raped both girls multiple times each week at Dojo Pizza and recorded the acts with a cell phone or video recorder.

Prosecutors also say there was evidence of Facebook chats between three minor female victims and a Facebook account utilized by Copp.

Some of the victims were in U.S. District Court in St. Louis for today’s sentencing, and two of the mothers addressed U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Fleissig. In addition to sentencing Copp to 65 years in prison, Judge Fleissig also ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $294,000.

The FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case, along with the Regional Computer Crime Education and Enforcement Group.

Man pleads guilty to throwing Molotov cocktail inside Columbia’s Planned Parenthood facility

November 21, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A Columbia man will be heading to federal prison, after admitting in a Jefferson City courtroom on Thursday that he threw a Molotov cocktail inside the Columbia Planned Parenthood facility in February.

Federal prosecutors say 42-year-old Wesley Brian Kaster faces a minimum of five years in federal prison, after pleading guilty to two counts. Kaster pleaded guilty to two counts of a superceding information. The first count is maliciously using explosive materials to damage a building owned by an organization that receives federal financial assistance. The second count is violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Don Ledford tells Missourinet those two counts replaced the federal indictment, which will be dismissed at sentencing.

Kaster faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison. He told U.S. Magistrate Judge Willie Epps Jr. today in Jefferson City that he took the actions because Planned Parenthood provided reproductive health services at that facility.

Kaster was arrested in March, after federal agents served multiple search warrants. He admits that he made a Molotov cocktail on February 10 and threw it into the Columbia Health Center, which is operated by Planned Parenthood Great Plains. There were no injuries in the incident, which happened at about 4:10 a.m.

Federal prosecutors have said that surveillance video from Planned Parenthood and from neighboring businesses recorded Kaster starting at about 2:30 a.m. on February 10, when he placed a bucket inside the building that was later found to be filled with gasoline. After a few attempts over the next hour, prosecutors say Kaster ignited a Molotov cocktail-type device inside.

Kaster has been in federal custody, without bond, since his March 2 arrest. A sentencing date hasn’t been set yet.

The case was investigated by Columbia Police, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and by the FBI.