By Dana Rieck
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A man killed by police last month fired almost a dozen shots at officers before they hit him with their SUV, according to a video released by St. Louis County police on Thursday.
The impact was so intense, it threw the man, 37-year-old Durell Dorn , several feet into the air and flipped him upside down, the video shows.
The video is a compilation of dashboard camera, body camera and traffic surveillance footage from the morning of Jan. 13 near the Ferguson border on West Florissant Avenue. Police said the investigation had not concluded, but it is department policy to release relevant footage within 45 days to help the public better understand the incident.
The fatal encounter was also caught on video by a driver and shared widely online the day of the shooting. Dorn’s friends and family in the city’s Walnut Park East neighborhood criticized police for the killing. They said he struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and they helped him manage it. His death could have been prevented, they said that week, if only they had been there.
The video compilation released Thursday starts with traffic cameras showing Dorn driving north on West Florissant and blowing through a red light at the intersection with Lucas and Hunt Road . He hits another car and drives up into a snowbank.
“He was so far away from us,” said Jabriella Williams following a discussion about the death of her friend Durell Dorn on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025 , at Kicks Cuts and Caps in St. Louis .
Almost immediately, Dorn gets out of the car and begins to walk north on West Florissant . It’s a frigid day, snow is on the ground. But Dorn is in a T-shirt.
The footage follows him as he walks up the road, frequently pointing a gun up in the air.
“We’re getting a bunch of calls on this,” says a radio dispatcher informing officers of the situation.
As Dorn walks, a line of cars forms behind him. When he briefly stops walking, the cars behind him stop.
At one point, he points the gun in the air; the gun kicks back.
Police dashboard and body camera footage show the first St. Louis County officer to arrive on scene, speeding north in the southbound lanes of West Florissant . He pulls up and gets out of the car.
“Drop the gun! Drop the gun!” the officer yells at Dorn.
Dorn looks back, keeps walking — then turns and fires at the officer. The snow in front of the officer’s car erupts.
The officer fires several shots back. They hit the snow behind Dorn.
Dorn begins to sprint north, the officer in chase.
Then another police SUV arrives.
The first cop stops, fires several shots at Dorn, runs back to the second SUV, slipping on ice as he does, and gets in.
“We’re gonna run him over,” the first officer says into his radio when he’s in the car.
Seconds later, the SUV speeds up and hits Dorn. The impact throws Dorn several feet into the air, and flips him upside down, his feet above his head.
The Police video pauses there and highlights the gun, just out of Dorn’s hand, in mid air.
The officers get out and run to Dorn, who is on the ground near the Ferguson Avenue intersection, and handcuff him. By this time, several more cops are there.
Police said that day that Dorn died later at a hospital.
In Thursday’s video, police said Dorn shot his gun 10 times, and officers fired 16 shots.
Both officers who fired their weapons are 30 years old, police said. One has five years experience in law enforcement and the other has eight.
The department’s video can be viewed on the its YouTube page.
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