St. Louis County Felon Admits Shooting at Police

ST. LOUIS - A convicted felon on Monday pleaded guilty and admitted shooting at St. Louis County Police Department officers.

On the day his trial was set to begin, Dexter McKinnies. 34, pleaded guilty to five felonies: one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts each of assault on a federal officer and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. On Sept. 1, 2020, police, including officers who are members of the FBI Violent Crime Safe Streets Task Force, were trying to arrest McKinnies. They arranged a meeting with McKinnies and his brother, Lawton McKinnies, under a ruse in which the McKinnies thought they would be performing maintenance work on a property in St. Louis County. Police arrested Lawton McKinnies, who was armed with a 9mm pistol, on a felony warrant. When they tried to arrest Dexter McKinnies, he ran while firing multiple shots at officers with a 9mm pistol, striking a truck owned by the FBI. Officers returned fire and struck McKinnies.

Dexter McKinnies, who is a convicted felon and is thus barred from possessing a firearm, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 18, 2025. He faces 20 years to life in prison.

Lawton McKinnies, now 36, pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three years in prison. In March, he was sentenced to another year for violating his supervised release.

The St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donald Boyce and Nichole Frankenberg are prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.