Number 5 for the St. Louis metro this year

[mshow00]

He really wasn't on duty, but then as it is, are we ever truly off duty?

A St. Louis firefighter who thought he was helping a motorist after a wreck Wednesday evening instead found himself confronted by an armed carjacker who shot the firefighter and left him dying in the street.

Minutes later and a few blocks away at the northern tip of St. Louis on Riverview Drive, the carjacker fired at St. Louis County officers, who shot back and killed the man, ending a carjacking spree that authorities called "chaotic" and pieced together based on witness accounts. The suspect was identified as Christopher Brandon, 19, of St. Louis.

The firefighter, Leonard Riggins, died later at a hospital from a gunshot wound to the chest. Riggins, 52, was a 15-year veteran of the St. Louis Fire Department and left behind a wife and two sons.

"He stopped, he tried to help, and he was shot for no reason at all," said St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson, speaking at Christian Northeast Hospital on Wednesday night.

Authorities were still trying to reconstruct the chain of events Wednesday night but said it appeared Brandon killed the firefighter carjacked or attempted to carjack four cars within a span of minutes. They had no motive for the crimes by Thursday afternoon.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stor...47?OpenDocument