Background: Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, Missouri (Google Maps). Inset: Austin Fitzgerald (St. Louis City Justice Center).
A man is accused of more than a dozen crimes in a two-day span in St. Louis, Missouri, having allegedly kidnapped two women and attacked others with brass knuckles.
Austin Fitzgerald, 61, stands charged with kidnapping, sexual abuse, assault, and the unlawful use of a weapon, among other charges, according to St. Louis County court records. He faces 14 charges in total, with authorities maintaining that he carried out a spree of violence at Tower Grove Park between Aug. 1 and 2.
On Friday, the first day of the month, two women were at the park when Fitzgerald came up to them from behind “with a black pistol like firearm” and said, “You two are coming with me,” according to a probable cause statement. He then allegedly grabbed one of the women”s arms and when she resisted, “ordered her to follow him in her vehicle.”
Fitzgerald instructed the other woman to get into his car, according to the court document, and he drove off after the first woman “activated her car alarm and began yelling for help.” This is when the alleged sexual assault occurred.
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With his weapon in his lap, the suspect is said to have “forced” off the shirt of the woman inside his car and “grabbed her breast.” He then reportedly said, “I am going to take you back to my hood” and threatened to further assault her. Fitzgerald is accused of also taking this victim’s purse and demanding she give him money.
Once again, his alleged plans were thwarted. The victim inside his car escaped and “jumped into a witness’ vehicle who had recorded the incident which was collected as evidence,” according to the probable cause record, which noted that other witnesses corroborated both victims’ accounts.
The women were “visibly shaking and crying” when officers arrived, according to a detective with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. They were both brought to a nearby hospital.
Midnight came and went, but Fitzgerald’s violence persisted, police said. On Saturday, four people were seated on a Tower Grove Park bench when the suspect came up from behind them and began to hit them in the head and chest, per a different probable cause statement.
As other people around tried to stop Fitzgerald, he allegedly “bit” another person, “causing a visible bruise and teeth markings.” Officers were called, receiving word via radio that a man “was assaulting multiple individuals with brass knuckles.”
When they arrived, park rangers had detained the suspect and seized the brass knuckles. Fitzgerald was booked into the St. Louis City Justice Center on Sunday.
The women who were attacked on Friday later “positively identified the defendant in a photographic lineup,” the detective stated in the court document, adding that “I believe the defendant poses a danger to the victims and community as he was also charged with multiple assault and weapons charges against other victims the following day.”
Fitzgerald was ordered on Tuesday to be held on no bond, and he was scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Wednesday.
