Community remembers Bellefontaine Neighbors police sergeant hit and killed by ... - STLtoday.com
She was Peggy Kaelin then, just 13 years old and the daughter of a longtime St. Louis police lieutenant, Edwin J. Kaelin. “She said, ‘That’s when I knew I wanted to be a police officer,’” said Gregory Warnusz, 68, a Bellefontaine Neighbors resident and police chaplain who had chatted with Vassallo at a recent neighborhood night out. She was in uniform and was driving her Jeep Cherokee when she rear-ended a Kia Amanti on eastbound Lindbergh Boulevard just west of Old Jamestown Road near the defunct Jamestown Mall. Vassallo got out of her Jeep to check on the woman in the Kia and approached the Kia’s passenger side. Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler said Vassallo called for an ambulance because the woman complained of neck injuries. Vassallo was pronounced dead at DePaul Health Center about 11:30 a. m. The women driving the Amanti and Fusion stayed at the crash scene and were cooperating with investigators. Vassallo was the Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Department’s community relations officer, served as a DARE officer at several schools and oversaw the neighborhood watch program. She’d been with the department about 15 years and became a sergeant in December 2011. She was with the St. Louis County Police Department for about 13 years before joining Bellefontaine. Source: www.stltoday.com
