On Sunday evening, St. Louis County police officer Matt McCulloch opened fire at a trunk or treat event on Sunday evening in Kirkwood, scaring hundreds in attendance and resulting in 11 felony charges. But one eyewitness believes that may not be the first time McCulloch terrorized people in Kirkwood that weekend.
Crestwood resident Luby Kelley says that on Friday night, he and his wife were both driving through Kirkwood in separate cars when, around 7:30 p.m., a man driving erratically turned from Jefferson Avenue onto Kirkwood Road in the city's downtown, striking two cars near Dewey's Pizza on Kirkwood.
The driver almost hit Kelley’s wife's car, Kelley says, but instead stopped near her vehicle, motioned for her to roll down her window and yelled at her.
The driver then drove one block north, making a right onto West Adams. At that point, the driver stopped his car in the middle of the road and yelled, "You're next!"
Kelley says he honked to get the driver to move. The driver took off into oncoming traffic on Adams, stopping to yell out his window, "You're all going to die. You're next!"
Kelley says he pulled into a church parking lot and called police, but the driver followed Kelley into the parking lot.
The police instructed Kelley to drive to the police station — even as his pursuer got out of his car and started approaching Kelley. Kelley took off for the police station. The driver then followed him for a block or so, but was no longer following Kelley by the time he pulled into the Kirkwood Police parking lot.
"I assumed they found him and got him," Kelley tells the RFT.
Officer Gary Baldridge with the Kirkwood Police Department confirmed that calls were made to police Friday night like the ones Kelley describes and that the department is actively investigating. "Puzzle pieces are still formulating a complete picture," he says, adding that he can't comment further until facts are pinned down.
Kelley, for one, has a theory.
Yesterday, Kelley saw the news about McCulloch’s arrest. Police have said McCulloch screamed, "You are all going to die" as he fired his handgun into the air at the trunk or treat.
The phrase felt familiar.
Kelley says it was dusk on Friday when the other driver got out of his car and approached him, but after looking at the mugshot posted yesterday, he's pretty sure the other driver was McCulloch. Also, when Kelley called 911, the operator asked if the car was a Jeep, indicating other people had called emergency services reporting a Jeep striking other cars. Kelley tells the RFT he's pretty certain the vehicle was a Jeep. According to St. Louis County property records, McCulloch owns a 2019 Jeep Cherokee.
McCulloch's public record is pretty thin. He is the son of former St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch. His wife filed for divorce in March, and court records show is currently living in Kirkwood. He is currently in jail, but has a bond review hearing scheduled for next week. His attorney, Brian Millikan, wrote in a court filing related to that hearing that McCulloch "agrees he is in urgent need of a mental health evaluation and treatment."
Both phone numbers associated with his name have been disconnected.
UPDATE: An RFT reader who was in Kirkwood Friday night reached out shortly after this story's publication to say that after seeing McCulloch's booking photo he immediately recognized him as the man causing havoc in Kirkwood on Friday night.
Nick, who asked we only refer to by his first name, says that he and his wife were getting gelato on Jefferson Avenue when they saw a driver they believe to be McCulloch almost T-bone another car heading south on Kirkwood Road. They say that McCulloch shouted, "They're coming for you!" The stranger also looked directly at Nick and shouted, "You're fucked," and then turned his gaze to Nick's wife and shouted, "You're fucked, too."
Nick says that he watched as McCulloch drove away, his car "rubbing" against another car as he fled. Nick managed to get a partial plate, he says, which he gave to police after calling 911.
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