Widow of retired police captain killed by looters gives emotional speech at RNC

The widow of a retired St. Louis police captain shot to death after a violent night of protests has said she relives the ‘horror’ of the night he died every day.  

During emotional remarks at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Ann Marie Dorn, who is a serving sergeant at the police department, said that she relives the ‘horror’ of her husband’s death daily.

In detail, she described the night that 77-year-old David Dorn was fatally shot outside a pawn shop June 2 amid violence following the death of George Floyd.

Saying ‘violence and destruction are not legitimate forms of protest,’ Dorn said she hopes that her pain will ‘help shake this country from the nightmare we are witnessing in our cities and bring about positive, peaceful change.’  

‘How did we get to this point where so many young people are callous and indifferent towards human life?’ Ann Marie Dorn asked. 

‘This isn’t a video game where you can commit mayhem and then hit ‘reset’ and bring all the characters back to life. David is never, never coming back to me. 

‘He was murdered by people who didn’t know, and just didn’t care. He would have done anything to help them.’

David was gunned down while trying to protect a friend’s pawn shop from looters in St Louis on the morning of 2 June. Surveillance footage captured his last moments. His body was found on the sidewalk at around 2.30am that morning.   

David, who was Black, was a friend of the pawn shop owner and often checked on the business when alarms went off.   

Soon after the shooting, Trump wrote on Twitter David was ‘viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before.’

Two men have been charged in David’s death.

Ann-Marie earlier declined an interview request but Ken Farnaso, deputy national press secretary for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, said she ‘will speak directly to the horrible pain caused by Democrats’ policies’ and laud Trump for standing up for public safety. Trump has made law and order a focal point of his bid for a second term.

‘Ms. Dorn’s painful story is just one of the countless stories that the media glosses over, and we are honored she will be sharing it with the rest of the nation at tonight’s RNC,’ Farnaso said.

Her speech is the second involving St. Louisans. On Monday, Mark and Patricia McCloskey also spoke about violence concerns in the city. 

The McCloskeys rose to fame in June after emerging from their home with guns to confront protesters who marched onto their private street. 

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s decision to charge them with felony unlawful use of a weapon has drawn criticism from Trump and other Republicans.

St. Louis has been the scene of dozens of protests in the months since George Floyd’s death in May. The most violent occurred on the night of June 1 and the early hours of June 2. Four officers were shot but survived. Other officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks, and dozens of businesses were burglarized and damaged.

Among them was the pawn shop, where surveillance video showed several people breaking in and stealing several televisions. David Dorn’s last moments were apparently caught on video and posted on Facebook Live, though the video was soon taken down. 

Two men have been charged in Dorn’s death. Two others were charged with looting the pawn shop.

Stephan Cannon, 24, suspected of murdering Dorn, has been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of armed criminal action, Fox News reported.