ST. LOUIS — Authorities have charged a 19-year-old driver who police say hit six pedestrians in the parking lot of Ted Drewes on Chippewa Street, hospitalizing four of them with serious or critical injuries.
Officers said their preliminary investigation shows that Rasool Al Janabi was driving westbound on Chippewa Sunday night when the car suddenly swerved to avoid hitting another car, overcorrected and crashed into metal barriers on the parking lot, hitting at least five people. The car hit a sixth person, an off-duty officer, as the driver reversed and drove away, police said.
“This appears to be a 19-year-old who was scared,” St. Louis police spokesman Mitch McCoy said Monday. “Right after the crash happened, and as people were going to the car, surrounding that car, he panicked, and he backed up, and then he took off.”
McCoy called the crash “unavoidable.”
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Janabi was charged Monday with five counts of leaving the scene of an accident with physical injury.
After the crash Sunday night, six people were taken to the hospital: a 12-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy, a 21-year-old woman, a 55-year-old man and an 82-year-old man.
A 39-year-old man — the off-duty officer — was in critical condition but making improvements Monday, McCoy said. Three of the others were seriously injured. All are expected to survive.
McCoy said most of them suffered head injuries, and the girl suffered a leg injury.
“It is by the the grace of God that nobody was killed and there were not more injuries,” McCoy said.
Officers were first called to Ted Drewes in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood on a report of a shooting at about 8 p.m. Sunday, he said.
“We think that that was because the car had hit one of those metal barriers, so when it hit, it sounded like gunshots,” McCoy said. “Well, when we get on scene, we find that nobody is shot, and we have multiple people that have been hit by a car.”
Janabi returned to Ted Drewes with a family member while police were there.
“We were told that he got spooked and was scared,” McCoy said. “He didn’t know what to do. He went back to his family’s house, and then his family said, ‘No, you need to go back.’”
A family member was in the car with Janabi when it crashed and has corroborated what happened, McCoy said.
It was not clear Monday afternoon whether Janabi was still in custody.
This crash comes more than two years after two pedestrians were killed in separate crashes outside the Ted Drewes location in two months.
The first happened in May 2022, when 75-year-old Edward Walter — a retired Washington University Medical School librarian — was hit by a car while crossing Chippewa Street in front of the frozen custard shop.
The driver cooperated with police in that crash.
But on July 29, 2022, a driver fled after he hit 17-year-old Christian Brothers College High School student Matthew Nikolai as he crossed Chippewa Street toward Ted Drewes. Matthew died shortly afterward.
The driver was later turned in by an auto shop when he tried to get his truck repaired. The owner recognized the vehicle and called police.
Earlier this year, that driver, 27-year-old Jacob Adler, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and was sentenced to a 120-day “shock” prison term followed by probation. If he violates his probation, he will receive a five-year prison sentence.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones introduced a traffic calming plan in fall 2022 after the deadly summer for pedestrians and cyclists.
That bill was signed in March 2023, and at the time, designing the improvements was expected to take the rest of the year. Officials anticipated construction would start in 2024, which includes improvements to that area of Chippewa. But on Monday the mayor’s spokesperson, Conner Kerrigan, said shipping delays had pushed back the project date.
Jones released a statement that said pedestrian safety improvements along Chippewa Street have been scheduled for January through March 2025.
The mayor’s office said the key safety improvements for the Ted Drewes area on Chippewa would include relocating the east parking lot entrance at the store, installing an accessible signalized mid-block crossing, improving lighting, constructing a bump-out with bollards and fencing to corral and separate patrons from vehicular traffic in front of the store and mounting a traffic camera that can pan, tilt and zoom.
“We’ve been working consistently with Ted Drewes on the design for the area, making sure that it works for them, making sure that any improvements we make aren’t going to hinder their ability to do their business,” Kerrigan said.
Jones on Sunday also noted that this particular incident happened on the Ted Drewes parking lot, not on Chippewa Street where the other incidents occurred.
“Our thoughts are first and foremost with those who have been injured and their families, and we are closely monitoring the situation,” Jones said. “We are praying for those involved and grateful for first responders who reacted quickly to this incident.”
