https://moosegazette.net/%F0%9F%94%A5stl-polling-place-relocated-after-man-backs-car-into-building-threatens-to-kill-workers%F0%9F%94%A5/42761/Quote
A man backed into the railing with his truck at Friendly Temple on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 in north St. Louis. The railing went through the wall to the inside. Photo by Rachel Ellis. rellis@post-dispatch.com.
Rachel Ellis
“He just went on a rampage then,” Stoff said. “We don’t know what set it off.” The man then entered the building where there were about eight people, said Election Judge Charles Hickerson, 74, of Florissant, who was there at the time. Hickerson said the man began flipping tables and chairs, throwing water on the workers and threatening to kill the people there. Everyone inside barricaded themselves in the church kitchen while they called police, Hickerson said. No one was injured. Police soon arrived and the man was taken into custody, and was driven to a hospital for evaluation, police said. Because of the police investigation and a need for cleanup, the city’s Board of Election Commissioners decided just before 11 a.m. to relocate the polling location for precincts 1, 4, 5 and 8 in Ward 22.The polling place is now located at Pierre Laclede Junior Career Academy, 5821 Kennerly Avenue, about a mile away in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. The school was already a polling place for other precincts in the area, Stoff said. There was an about 45 minute gap between the church closing and the new poling place becoming operational by noon, Stoff said. The voting machines in the church were not damaged by water being poured on them, but different machines were used in the new location as a precaution, Stoff said.
Election Judge Charles Hickerson, 74, of Florissant, sits in a chair inside of Friendly Temple on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 in north St. Louis. Behind him is the kitchen where he and seven other people had to barricade themselves when a man came inside and started flipping tables and chairs on election day. Photo by Rachel Ellis. rellis@post-dispatch.com.
Rachel Ellis
The parking lot of the original poling place was blocked off by cones Tuesday afternoon and signs and workers directed voters to the new location. Election Judge Hickerson said the incident was the worst thing he’s seen over his four or five years working at polls. “I’m calm now, a little startled, but I’m calm,” he said sitting in the church a few hours after the rampage. “Trying to get myself together.”Rachel Ellis of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.