St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner recently announced she would resign from office on June 1. That brought a sign of relief from many but not from Attorney General Andrew Bailey who’d been suing to have her removed from office. Bailey said that June 1 wasn’t good enough and added that his lawsuit against her would continue unless she resigned immediately.

That seemed a bit harsh. After all, what could happen in her final few weeks in office?

The day after Gardner announced her resignation was May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. The following day, Saturday May 6th, there was a Cinco de Mayo parade held in St. Louis. Lots of people, lots of drinking and at one point some people in the street got into a fight. Two people watching the fight from the sidewalk pulled out guns and started shooting.

As the party on Cherokee street was winding down, gunfire broke out at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

According to police, a man was grazed in his upper thigh and a woman was shot in the leg. Both victims were taken to a nearby hospital and are in stable condition.

An investigation found the victims were watching some men fight from an intersection when one of the suspects started waiving a handgun.

The two shooters, a man and a woman, were quickly identified because there was video showing them pulling out their guns and opening fire. Police released a bunch of images and asked the public for help identifying them.

As you can see from the update, they were both arrested. The female suspect was 33-year-old Amber Booker. Police were asking Gardner’s office to charge here with two counts of first degree assault plus two more counts of armed criminal action.

But this is where the case took an unexpected turn. For reasons that still aren’t clear, Booker was released from custody Wednesday. Kim Gardner’s declined to file any charges against her citing lack of evidence.

Police arrested one of two gun-wielding people caught on camera during a double shooting at a crowded holiday celebration this past weekend in south St. Louis, but the 33-year-old woman was released Wednesday afternoon after the prosecutor’s office refused charges against her.

The suspect’s release drew public ire, but Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office declined to further explain.

“We are working closely with police on this ongoing investigation,” circuit attorney spokeswoman Allison Hawk wrote in a statement. “We cannot comment further at this time.”

That vague statement didn’t sit well with the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which demanded Gardner offer the public an explanation for her refusal to charge a shooting caught on video.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s announcement that she will resign June 1 was welcome news, but it’s already become apparent that her short remaining tenure is going to be a long few weeks. How is it possible that a shooting suspect is caught on camera wielding a gun, is identified and arrested, but now is walking free with no pending charges? If photographic proof of the crime isn’t enough to pursue immediate criminal action, what is?…

According to police, Gardner’s office cited the refusal of a shooting victim to cooperate, which is unfortunate but doesn’t necessarily preclude prosecution. Her office also cited “lack of evidence.”

Evidence as in … actual photos of suspects wielding guns? That seemed good enough when Gardner went after Mark and Patricia McCloskey in 2020.

The piece concludes, “Gardner could end her time in office better than she conducted most of it by publicly explaining this.” That was published yesterday but so far no explanation has been offered.

I’m struggling to think of an explanation for allowing this woman to walk. Maybe there is a good explanation for this, but given that it was all caught on video it’s hard to imagine how lack of evidence could be a problem here.

Shooting in STL at Cinco De Mayo Cherokee Street Festival. pic.twitter.com/5gW603FrI3

— 🆂🅸🅽🅴🆆🆂 (@silreport) May 8, 2023