'You are all going to die': St. Louis cop shoots up elementary school Halloween party

A St. Louis, Missouri police officer is now facing 11 felony counts after firing off his weapon at a Halloween-themed event for elementary school-aged children.

Local news outlet KSDK reported that 39-year-old Matthew McCulloch pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, one count of unlawful use of a weapon, and one count of first-degree terrorist threatening. No one was physically harmed in the shooting.

The officer is accused of harassing attendees of a trunk-or-treat event on Sunday afternoon at North Kirkwood Middle School with his family, in which hundreds of Tillman Elementary School students and their parents were also present. Court documents describe McCulloch, who was off duty at the time, as "aggressively" approaching several attendees and making threatening statements like "you are all going to die." At one point, he allegedly threatened a local woman, whose husband then shoved McCulloch to the ground.

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After picking himself up, McCulloch allegedly lifted his shirt, produced a handgun and a badge, and began erratically firing multiple shots into the air. Eventually, other parents tackled him to the ground and took away his weapon.

“He held his gun with a menacing grin on his face and a lifeless look in his eyes and fired five shots and waited for the crowd to react. It was complete chaos. One kid had completely run out of his shoes," Corey Schonhorst, who was there with his eight-year-old son, told KSDK. “At the time it seemed like eight, nine minutes. I mean, it was like time stopped. The scariest thing I can really remember is after those parents tackled him to the ground, he was still smiling."

“The fact that he’s a police officer really is a pretty scary thought because who do we turn to now to protect our children?" He added.

McCulloch, who has been a police officer since 2017, is the son of former St. Louis County prosecutor Robert "Bob" McCulloch, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings that ultimately acquitted former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson in the 2014 killing of Michael Brown. He is also the nephew of St. Charles County prosector Joe McCulloch.

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