News

Missouri Woman Wanted in U.S. Capitol Riots

Written by DOYLE MURPHY

Well, it was bound to happen: A Missourian has been charged in the U.S. Capitol riots.

Emily Hernandez of Sullivan in Franklin County made a memorable cameo in January 6 footage of the extremists, snagging Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s broken nameplate and parading it around the Capitol like a trophy, according to the FBI’s account of her alleged actions, filed last week in federal court.

Images submitted by tipsters show a woman identified as Hernandez holding the splintered wooden sign above her head. She is in the thick of the extremist mob. Over her right shoulder in the Capitol is a Virginia man wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt.

If Hernandez was a popular figure among the insurrectionists, she apparently has a number of enemies. Acquaintances in real life and online were quick to give her up to the FBI. Three people contacted the feds, and “multiple anonymous tipsters” also provided info and images, according to court documents.

Investigators matched up British ITV’s footage with Hernandez’s own Snapchat video from the Capitol, the

Emily Hernandez is facing federal charges. | JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT

FBI says. A helpful frenemy also provided a photo of Hernandez wearing what appears to be the same distinctive winter hat in a Facebook pic.

An ex-high school classmate also identified Hernandez and told the FBI that she was from Sullivan. From there, an investigator matched photos of the woman in the Capitol with Hernandez’s driver’s license picture.

In a criminal complaint, she’s accused of breaking five laws, including disorderly conduct which impedes conduct of government business. She’s also charged with stealing, selling, conveying or disposing of U.S. property.

As of press time she was not in custody. n

at’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stolen name plate. | JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT

NEWS

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St. Louis schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams speaks during a January 12 meeting. | SCREENSHOT

St. Louis’ School District Waited for a Miracle. No One Came

Written by DANNY WICENTOWSKI

The largest mass closing of St. Louis public schools in more than a decade has arrived — and although public outcry in December led the St. Louis Board of Education to reduce its initial target from eleven to eight schools, the board members who reconvened to vote on January 12 did so under a cloud of a familiar disappointment.

The school board meeting closed on a vote to shut down four elementary schools: Clay, Dunbar, Farragut and Ford. The district will also close Fanning Middle School, Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC and Northwest high schools. Carnahan will be converted into a middle school.

The closures are controversial, though not as sweeping as the eleven-school proposal, revealed in December, that sparked immediate backlash: Parents showed up to protest at the district office, while hundreds left statements at a public hearing to plead for solutions that would keep the institutions open. The chorus was joined by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, which passed a unanimous (though non-binding) resolution opposing the plan to upend more than 2,000 district students and 200 staff.

But now, one month later, the sound and fury appear to have signified almost nothing.

Indeed, after the school board announced a “pause” in response to the backlash, board members said they hoped the extra time would bring new resources and political energy to the city’s longstanding education crisis: While St. Louis’ school system was built for a 1960s-era enrollment of more than 100,000 students, it now musters an enrollment of fewer than 20,000 students spread over 68 buildings. Some schools are unable to fill even half their classrooms.

Simply put, St. Louis has too

Continued on pg 10

Midway down Main Street in the historic district of downtown St. Charles, one of the old riverfront buildings has been converted into the small art gallery, Missouri Artists On Main. This spring, the gallery will be presenting debut photographer, Nicholas Roach, along with other artists.

Although Nick has excelled in capturing everything from models to city skylines, it is his photographs of landscapes, animals and other aspects of the natural world that will be on display. Through his beginnings in Cape Coral, Florida, it was nature that drew Nick in and inspired him to pursue photography.

Five years ago Nick left Missouri for Florida as a way to leave his turbulent past behind him; however, in his new home, he was faced with more difficulty when he was injured in a dirt bike accident. What seemed like continuing misfortune at the time, ended up being the window from which he saw a new future. Nick had nine weeks, where he was unable to work, and a brand new camera.

At first, Nick admits, he believed photography was simply “taking pictures,” but after participating in online courses and experimenting with all of the settings of the camera, he couldn’t believe the outcome.

“After I uploaded my photos,” Nick describes the first time with his camera, “I was just so happy with how everything looked, it just spiked everything from there.”

Since his time in Florida, Nick has moved back to St. Louis. With the encouragement from other artists, he continues to push himself to grow and expand his knowledge in the techniques of photography.

“To this day,” Nick says, “I spend at least two hours almost every night researching.” Working with others gives meaning to the struggles of his past; Nick helps people find success in his free time, and he seeks to inspire others through this photography. Part of being an emerging artist is entering his photographs, which he places on metal prints, into galleries.

His work will be displayed at Missouri Artists On Main this April through May; his pieces give viewers new perspectives of familiar landscapes and other nature scenes. Visitors will also have the opportunity to purchase his metal prints, which display snapshots of the natural world, the way Nick sees it.

ADVERTORIAL

SCHOOL DISTRICTS Continued from pg 9

many schools, too few students, and the imbalance is draining resources from the district. A month’s delay hasn’t changed that. During the January 12 school board meeting, Superintendent Kelvin Adams revealed that he’d spent the extra time meeting with representatives of nonprofits, alumni organizations and elected officials ho argue t. ouis still needs its school buildings because the population is on the rebound. It is a perspective he does not share.

“I am not believing that we’re going to get 10,000 kids coming here next week,” Adams told the board, adding that other ideas raised as alternatives to closures would “require a great deal of time.” ime is a resource t. ouis teachers and students don’t have, Adams said. Tangible help from city leaders is also in short supply: Despite the high-volume opposition to the closings, Adams and other board members lamented the lack of interest by elected leaders during the delay. Among the four candidates currently campaigning for t. ouis ma or, onl one, ara Spencer, sat down with the school board to discuss the closures.

Still, Adams said the delay had given him time to reevaluate two elementary schools included in his original proposal, Hickey and Monroe, which he said show potential for growth among preschool students and should not be closed. Adams also said various groups, including Harris-Stowe State University, have pledged support to save the historic Sumner High School, which traces its roots to as the first frican American high school founded west of the Mississippi River.

Similar support was not available for the other schools marked for closure. During last week’s school board meeting, Adams presented the board with four options, including his original proposal. One option, “Option 3,” would close just four schools on the condition that the city’s Board of Aldermen pass a moratorium on any new schools (including charter schools) until there is a “city-wide plan for schools” under the city’s next mayor.

To make this option work, Adams continued, the city-wide plan would have to be in development by October, and it would have to include reforms to the city’s controversial use of tax incentives to fund private developments, as

ere was public outcry over plans to close St. Louis schools, but few solutions ultimately materialized. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

those incentives drain revenue that would otherwise go to the school district.

It was this set of requirements which raised the most debate during the meeting. On one hand, Option 3 would be a relief to alumni and parents of students at six elementary schools. But it also meant trusting t. ouis political leaders to accomplish city-wide policy goals.

For some of the school board members, this was apparently too much to ask. Several critiqued the empty promises of the city’s powerbrokers and the overwhelming silence that followed last month’s splashy statements, tweets and non-binding resolutions.

“I will not support Option 3 with the idea that our elected officials are going to, all of a sudden, come up with a plan,” board member Regina Fowler said. She said city aldermen would have no “meat” in a non-binding moratorium that could prevent new schools from opening in t. ouis, and that ta incentive reform “is a long-term solution, which I agree with, but it doesn’t affect the decision we make today.”

Similarly, board member Susan Jones said she was dismayed at the lack of attention to the school crisis on the part of elected officials, particularly in an election season. “My fear,” she explained, “is that we’ll choose an option

“ My fear is that we’ll choose an option with the idea that they [city officials] are going to do something.”

ith the idea that the cit officials] are going to do something.”

On the other side of that fear is t. ouis d indling population and hat happens hen and charter schools court the remaining children. Board members agreed that the city should pursue a moratorium on charter schools, which are publicly funded but are run independently from school districts.

But while he supports a moratorium, Adams acknowledged that such a restriction would require action by the state’s conservativedominated legislature, which has spent years trying to pass laws to expand charter schools in Missouri. Indeed, a bill currently pending in the Missouri Senate, sponsored by Republican t. harles la ma er ill igel, ould ma e it illegal for t. ouis to refuse to lease or sell city propert including closed buildings — to charter schools.

In his remarks to the board last week, Adams urged the members to consider the stakes of their vote. He reminded them that 62 schools had closed in t. ouis since , including fifteen charter schools, and the city was still “saturated” with educational options. If the board didn’t act, he warned, they wouldn’t have to wait another decade before taking up school closures again: They’d be “back at this table” every two years.

In the meantime, Adams concluded, “this community and the resources are being squandered away, and I don’t think they need to be squandered to support the students we have.”

After more than two hours of debate, the board voted 4-3 to close eight schools and to dela the final decision to close Sumner until arch. he narro vote re ected the anguish around closing a school, which Adams previously said can feel “like a death” for students and the surrounding neighborhood as they are forced to watch the formerly beloved building degrade into vacancy.

But the vote signaled something else, too t. ouis education system won’t keep waiting for someone to save it, and its elected school board has run out of confidence in city leaders. n

Church Arsonist Wanted in Vandalism Spree

Written by DOYLE MURPHY

ASt. Louis man convicted of setting fires to churches in 2015 is wanted for smashing up a string of buildings, including multiple houses of worship.

David Lopez Jackson, 40, was named by St. Louis County police as the suspect in the recent vandalism spree. He has hit more than a dozen locations in Jennings since mid-December, throwing bricks through the windows, police say. In some cases, they believe he also used a hammer to smash the glass. The targets included Noah’s Ark Church, Calvary West Missionary Baptist Church, Community Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and West Florissant Masjid — all within a short walk of each other.

“There is no effort to burglarize the business and the destruction of property appears to be the only goal,” police say in a news release.

Last week, police distributed still images from surveillance footage of a man in a dark jacket and knit hat, caught in the act of throwing. Thanks to the help of tipsters, police say they now believe

Surveillance video caught the window smasher in action. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE

the vandal is Jackson. They have issued a warrant for his arrest on a charge of property damage. He was not in custody at press time.

Jackson pleaded guilty in March 2017 to two counts of arson. Over the years, he has cycled in and out of prison as he struggled with mental illness. Court records show judges have repeatedly ordered mental health evaluations and treatment, and his mother indicated after one incident that he has schizophrenia.

The church fires in 2015 included multiple targets near Ferguson, which drew national attention as police and

David Lopez Jackson. | ST LOUIS POLOICE

church leaders sought answers.

The arsons and Jackson were the subject of a Riverfront Times cover story in November 2015.

He ultimately pleaded guilty for two of the church fires after police connected him through forensic evidence and surveillance video. He was suspected in five others but never charged.

Jackson was sentenced to five years in prison. It wasn’t immediately clear when he was released, but it appears he served at least the majority of his sentence. He is on probation. n

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