Death Of David Dorn

Overview

The Death Of David Dorn occurred on June 2nd, 2020, when the retired St. Louis police captain and municipal chief was shot to death by looters at a pawnshop in St. Louis during the 2020 George Floyd Protests. His killing and death were livestreamed on Facebook, showing Dorn lying on the sidewalk near the store after he attempted to prevent looters from robbing the shop.

Background

On June 2nd, 2020, 77-year-old David Dorn responded to an alarm at Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry, his friend’s business where he had been providing security, in St. Louis around 2:30 a.m. The pawnshop was being looted when he arrived, and after attempting to confront the looters, he was shot several times in the torso. Facebook^[1] user Dèll Saav livestreamed Dorn’s death on Facebook Live, arriving at the store after Dorn had been shot. The video, posted under the caption “THEY JUST KILLED THIS MAN IN MY FACE” (seen below), shows Dorn lying on the sidewalk outside the pawnshop. Saav can be heard throughout the video repeating, “They just killed this man over some TVs. Stay with me OG.” The video received over 95,000 views, 4,500 shares and 1,200 reactions.

After the video was streamed, several users commented on it claiming the livestreamer didn’t do enough to help, to which Saav replied in the comment section:

For everybody saying call for help! We did! The ambulance and fire departments were all up the street not even 5 mins away from the scene while this was going on, yes we could have taken him to them or to the nearest hospital 💯 but no one had any knowledge of what to do in this situation and there was no medical professionals on the scene to guide us in helping! Yes recording was disrespectful and I send my condolences to the family 💙 this could have been avoided in many different ways but first people have to think before they react to certain situations! I was not the only one on the scene recording so don’t be in my inbox trying to blow me down about the situation! And we wonder why we have problems with the police not caring for us! But we have to stand up and care for ourselves first! I haven’t been to sleep at all yet because the situation is so fucced up its never serious to the point where people have to lose their life over materialistic things! Rip.

Developments

Government Response

The St. Louis Police Department and Police Chief John Hayden announced in a news conference on June 2nd, 2020 (uploaded to Twitter,^[2] shown below), that "Throughout the night, we made 25 arrests for various charges, and then there were 55 businesses and counting that were burglarized and had property damage. One of those businesses had one of our retired captains, retired captain David Dorn, who retired after 38 years. During the looting process, David Dorn was exercising law enforcement that he learned here." Police stated that no arrests have been made and they have no suspects, but announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

On June 2nd, 2020, President Donald Trump paid tribute to Dorn in a Twitter^[3] post and said, “Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!” The tweet (seen below) received 373,000 likes and 107,000 retweets.

Online Reactions

News of Dorn’s death spread online in the following days, appearing on a number of social media platforms. One such example was posted by Twitter^[4] user stillgray who re-uploaded the livestream on June 2nd, 2020 (shown below), receiving over 7.5 million views, 59,000 likes, 39,000 retweets and 8,400 replies.

On June 3rd, 2020, Twitter^[5] user w_terrence shared a video discussing Dorn’s death with the caption, “KEEP POSTING HIS NAME!” The video (seen below) received over 786,000 views, 14,000 likes and 8,000 retweets.

Redditor^[6] boomerpro posted an image of Dorn to the r/conspiracy subreddit on June 2nd, 2020 (shown below), receiving over 10,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments. On June 2nd, 2020, Redditor^[7] 2dubs1bro then reposted the video to the r/PublicFreakout sub where it was upvoted over 5,500 times and commented on 822 times.

On June 2nd, 2020, Donald Trump Jr. shared his father’s tweet on his Instagram^[8] account alongside the caption, “R.I.P. Captain Dorn.” The image received nearly 150,000 likes. Michael Rapaport shared the video to his Instagram^[9] on June 3rd, 2020, receiving over 814,000 views and 91,000 likes.

The story was also covered by numerous media outlets on June 2nd, 2020, including The St. Louis Post-Dispatch,^[10] The Guardian^[11] and CNN,^[12] as well as many others.

St. Louis Man Charged With Murder of Dorn

On June 7th, 2020, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced that a 24-year-old St. Louis man, named Stephan Cannon, had been charged with the first-degree murder of Dorn, as well as first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and three counts of armed criminal action and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to charging documents from the St. Louis police department, video surveillance showed a Pontiac G6 pull up to the pawnshop the night of Dorn's death as several individuals entered. The video then captured Cannon leaving the pawnshop and heading to the car shortly before Dorn's arrival. Cannon was seen near the corner of the store with a gun in his hand and, "it is apparent from the surveillance that at the time the shots were fired, Cannon was the only person standing at that corner. Once Dorn has been shot and falls to the ground, Cannon can be seen approaching the door to the pawnshop,” charging documents said.

KSDK News reported on the charges on June 8th, 2020, and uploaded a video discussing the case to its YouTube^[13] channel (seen below). According to KSDK News, a TV from the pawnshop was recovered at Cannon's residence where he was arrested. The video has since been viewed over 22,000 times and liked 900 times.

On June 7th, 2020, Donald Trump Jr. posted the announcement to his Facebook^[14] page, receiving over 87,000 reactions, 40,000 shares and 12,000 comments, alongside the caption, "Officer Dorn was a hero and a good man who served his community for decades. He was slain in a senseless act of murder by a looter during violent leftist riots." The Twitter^[15] account Breaking911 also shared a tweet that day (shown below), and received over 36,000 likes and 16,000 retweets.

Several other media outlets then picked up the story on June 8th, 2020, including NBC News^[16] and CBS News.^[17]

Search Interest

External References