Construction worker beat off-duty Black officer with hard hat, yelled slurs, MO cops say

Three construction workers are facing assault charges after Missouri police say they choked and beat an off-duty police officer.

St. Louis County police officers responded Sept. 26 to a witness report of “a road construction crew” assaulting a driver, later identified as an off-duty St. Louis County police officer in plain clothes in an unmarked car, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities said Matthew Devlin, Garrett Gibbs and Donnie Hurley “engaged in a verbal altercation” with the Black off-duty officer.

Witnesses told police Devlin screamed racial slurs, telling him to “go back to the hood with your gold chain,” and that he did not “belong down here,” court records show.

Devlin then hit the officer on the head with a hard hat, investigators said.

Gibbs and Hurley held the off-duty officer down and Devlin continued to beat him with the hard hat, according to the complaint.

The three men then put him in a headlock and choked him while he pleaded with them, saying he could not breathe, according to the complaint.

They are each facing charges of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and kidnapping, court records show.

Devlin’s cash-only bond was set at $250,000. Bonds for Gibbs and Hurley were set at $100,000, court records show.

McClatchy News reached out to Hurley’s attorney Oct. 11 for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Attorney information for Devlin and Gibbs was not available.

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