Drug suspect dies from police gunfire

Published Tuesday, June 6, 2006

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A suspected St. Louis-area drug dealer whom police shot last week after he injured an undercover officer with his van has died from the gunshot wounds.

Maurice A. Adkins, 27, of University City had been hospitalized in critical condition since Thursday and died Sunday night.

He faced three felony counts of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and possession and delivery of a controlled substance, St. Louis County police Capt. Thomas Jackson said.

When undercover officers tried to arrest Adkins during a drug buy Thursday, Adkins fled in a van. One detective opened the van’s door and got trapped between the door and the door jamb by a police car, police said in a news release.

The trapped officer and another detective shot Adkins, police said. The injured detective was treated and released from a hospital with minor injuries to his legs.

A small child and a woman inside the van were not injured during the shooting.

Police said they were acting on a tip that Adkins was selling heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl, a combination that has been blamed for overdoses and deaths in St. Louis and across the country.