ST. LOUIS — A judge on Tuesday released the 19-year-old charged with striking five pedestrians outside Ted Drewes on a sponsored recognizance bond.
Rasool Al Janabi was released from jail and agreed to several other bond conditions: no guns, no drugs and no driving. He will be on GPS-monitored house arrest, with the exception of work and school, according to online court records.
Someone who shares Al Janabi’s last name co-signed the bond.
Al Janabi was charged Monday with five counts of leaving the scene of an accident with physical injury after police say he struck people with his car while they were in the Ted Drewes Christmas tree lot on Chippewa Street.
Court documents say he appeared with his attorney and pleaded not guilty to the charges during a hearing Tuesday morning. Court records did not have his attorney listed.
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He’s due back in court next week.
Police say Al Janabi was driving westbound on Chippewa at about 8 p.m. Sunday 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.
Al Janabi left the scene before officers arrived, police said, but returned with a family member while they were investigating.
Six people were taken to the hospital, ranging in age from 12 to 82. All are expected to survive.
This crash comes more than two years after two pedestrians were killed in separate crashes within a two-month span outside the Ted Drewes location in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood.
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.
Two months later, 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.
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 Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Mitch McCoy and Mayor Tishaura Jones' spokesman Conner Kerrigan provide an update on a crash that injured six in Ted Drewes' parking lot. Kerrigan details when citizens can expect safety updates to street. Video by Dana Rieck, edited by Jenna Jones.
