Background: Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, Missouri (Google Maps). Inset: Austin Fitzgerald (St. Louis City Justice Center).
A man is facing allegations of committing over a dozen crimes over a two-day period in St. Louis, Missouri. These include the abduction of two women and attacks on others using brass knuckles.
According to court records in St. Louis County, 61-year-old Austin Fitzgerald has been charged with kidnapping, sexual abuse, assault, and illegal weapon usage, among other offenses. In total, he is facing 14 charges, with officials alleging a series of violent acts at Tower Grove Park on August 1 and 2.
On the first day of August, while at the park, two women were approached from behind by Fitzgerald, who allegedly wielded a firearm resembling a black pistol. He reportedly told them, “You two are coming with me,” and then seized one woman’s arm. When she resisted, he “ordered her to follow him in her vehicle,” as stated in a probable cause document.
According to the court report, Fitzgerald directed the second woman to enter his vehicle and drove away after the first woman “activated her car alarm and began yelling for help.” It was at this point that the alleged sexual assault took place.
The suspect is accused of having his weapon on his lap while forcing the woman in his car to remove her shirt and allegedly groping her. He reportedly threatened further harm, saying, “I am going to take you back to my hood,” and demanded money after taking her purse.
The suspect’s purported intentions were again foiled when the woman in his car managed to escape by “leaping into a witness’s vehicle,” who had captured the incident on video, which was later used as evidence. The probable cause report mentions that other witnesses supported the victims’ stories.
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.
