Sonny J. Vincent

Officers shot and killed a man fleeing a traffic stop, police said. Around 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, officers in a St. Charles County regional task force tried to stop a vehicle near Interstate 70 and Highway 79 in St. Peters, police said. The vehicle did not stop and about 12 miles west from there Wentzville officers set up spike strips on I-70. The vehicle ran over the strips, but continued on, police said, until it drove off the highway through a grass median near Langtree Drive. Two people got out of the car and ran northwest. The shooting happened as Vincent and his passenger, Amber Smith, were running away in Wentzville, at which point police said Vincent pointed a gun at them. Two officers — one from St. Charles and one from St. Peters — shot at him. Vincent died at a hospital. Both people were arrested near where they had ditched the car, police said. The man who was shot was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital but he later died. Smith, 37, was uninjured and eventually arrested a few blocks away. She has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon; possession of a controlled substance; forgery; resisting arrest; and second-degree tampering with a motor vehicle. On Thursday she was in custody at the St. Charles County Department of Corrections on a $10,000 cash-only bail. Officers in the St. Charles County task force target certain areas of the county to investigate and deter crime. Wentzville police said the two officers who shot Vincent are on administrative leave. The St. Charles officer is a 32-year-old man with eight years of law enforcement experience, and the St. Peters officer is a 37-year-old man with nine years of law enforcement experience. Police said Vincent’s gun, recovered at the scene, was a stolen firearm out of Marion, Illinois. The St. Charles County Regional Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the shooting, police said. Westbound I-70 was closed at Wentzville Parkway and westbound Pearce Boulevard as police investigated the shooting, but was opened early Wednesday.