ST. Louis • Less than a month ago, a St. Louis judge warned Myron Pollard that he faced prison or a coffin if he didn't turn his life around.
"Do you want to grow up?" St. Louis Circuit Judge Jack Garvey asked. "Or do you want to die or do more time?"
Pollard, who turned 18 on Aug. 10, apparently didn't heed the warning. He was one of two men shot late Wednesday morning while police and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tried to arrest them.
Doctors at St. Louis University Hospital declared Pollard dead Thursday morning.
Details of the investigation were scarce, and federal officials declined to comment while charges are pending. At least some of those who could face federal charges are juveniles.
In a news conference after the shooting, Marino Vidoli, the special agent in charge for the Kansas City field office of the ATF, said the shooting came after a three-week investigation. Agents had received information that the group at the center of the investigation planned to commit an armed robbery Wednesday.
As they attempted to make the arrests, the suspects drove at ATF agents, Vidoli said. One agent fired his weapon.
In addition to the two people shot, three other people were arrested, Vidoli said. Authorities found three guns at the shooting scene, at South Grand Boulevard and Iron Street.
In February, prosecutors filed assault and armed criminal actions against Pollard for allegedly shooting at a man walking with his brother and 2-year-old nephew in the 3600 block of Nebraska Avenue. The man was hit multiple times, charging documents say. But the grand jury did not indict Pollard.
Garvey's comments came July 30 as he sentenced Pollard to three years in prison for a different felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon, then suspended the sentence and put Pollard on probation for two years. Pollard had been caught with a concealed .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol last Halloween.
Garvey said court rules forbid him from commenting on the case, but a recording of the July 30 court hearing captured Garvey berating Pollard.
"I see you roaming Dutchtown," Garvey said. "Unfettered. Unstructured. Doing whatever you want. Finding guns dropped by the gun fairy. Shooting people who you want. This is not going to end well."
He asked whether Pollard loved his mother and whether he thought she liked visiting him in jail, or would like 'standing by your coffin. 'Cause that's where we're going."
Later on July 30, prosecutors charged Pollard with misdemeanor marijuana possession after police said they caught him with several baggies containing what appeared to be pot on July 19 in the 3700 block of South Jefferson. His mother, Hope White, posted $500 bond on that charge Monday, just days before Pollard's death.
Police say Pollard's brother, Byron Pollard, fatally shot three people in recent months. He killed one man on June 27 after mistaking him for a rival gang member, police said. On July 3, he killed two other men, telling police that he fired in self-defense when they tried to rob him during a drug deal, according to police and court documents.
Byron Pollard faces a murder charge in the first case. Prosecutors were still reviewing the second case.
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