Stockley protest planned for Belleville this weekend

Belleville will be home to its own protest over the Jason Stockley verdict on Sunday.

The protest, called “Stand With St. Louis Against The Stockley Verdict,” is scheduled to take place at 10 Public Square in front of the courthouse from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Indivisible IL 12, the regional chapter of the Indivisible group, announced the event on their Facebook page and is organizing the protest.

Protests have rocked St. Louis since former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted of the death of Anthony Lamar Smith on Sept. 15. Stockley is from Collinsville and a 1998 graduate of Althoff Catholic High School.

While daytime protests have been peaceful, police say agitators have vandalized streets at night. Police in riot gear and protestors have clashed multiple times since the verdict on St. Louis streets.

In 2011, Stockley shot Smith after a two-minute police chase. Police dashcam video captures Stockley saying, “going to kill this (expletive), don’t you know it,” in the midst of the chase. When Smith stops his car, Stockley approaches him and fires five shots into Smith’s car, killing him.

Defense attorney Neil Bruntrager said Stockley fired only when Smith refused commands to put up his hands and reached along the seat toward an area where a gun was found.

Prosecutors, however, said Stockley planted the gun in Smith’s car. Testing found Stockley’s DNA on the gun, but not Smith’s. During the trial, two DNA analysts testified that the absence of someone’s DNA on a gun doesn’t mean that person did not touch it.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Stockley protest planned for Belleville this weekend."