By Carolyn Tuft
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Prosecutors charged a St. Louis man with 12 felonies Monday night in an early morning home invasion that left a nurse dead and an off-duty police officer and her firefighter boyfriend seriously injured.
Mario Coleman, 22, was held late Monday in lieu of $1 million, cash-only bail. Coleman, of the 5300 block of Cabanne Avenue, faces one charge of first-degree murder, one charge of first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree robbery and six counts of armed criminal action in the home invasion early Monday. A 16-year-old suspect also was being held pending charges.
Police said the nurse was Gina Stallis, 34, the mother of two, who worked in the oncology department at the John Cochran VA Medical Center on North Grand Boulevard.
Officials did not identify the wounded officer or firefighter. They were off-duty when attacked at a house in the 900 block of Hickory Street about 1:10 a.m.
Police said the firefighter, 29, was escorting the officer, 27, to her car when two gunmen forced them back into the house. Six other people were inside.
The intruders announced a robbery and a struggle followed.
The officer was shot at least three times — twice in the chest and once in the leg - and emerged from surgery in critical condition, officials said. Late Monday she was alert and speaking, police said. She has been on the force since late 2007.
The firefighter, reported to be working on his emergency medical technician license, was shot once in the neck and hospitalized in serious condition.
Stallis, who lived in the 6300 block of Juniata Street and was visiting the house on Hickory, was shot once in the chest and died at a hospital, police said.
Police Lt. Col. Reggie Harris said there was no indication that the officer or anyone else at the home was targeted. “It was a crime of opportunity,” he said.
The officer’s mother, grandmother and other relatives lived there, a family friend said.
Police said that “at this point, it does not appear anyone inside the residence returned fire.” That left open a question of how the 16-year-old suspect came to be shot in the hand. He was taken into juvenile custody after seeking treatment for the wound at a hospital early Monday.
Police did not say whether he might have been shot by Coleman, who was arrested in a vehicle near the Kingshighway entrance to Forest Park shortly after the injured teen arrived at the hospital.
Police said they recovered two weapons and property stolen from the home on Hickory.
A spokeswoman praised the department’s patrol officers, crediting them for quick arrests with the help of detailed information from witnesses.
John Waldmann, who worked at the medical center with Stallis, said she had two children, 7 and 9. “Her children were her life, and she did anything she could for them,” said Waldmann, of St. Louis. “She was a good person. Those of us here at the hospital will deeply miss her personality.”
The crime scene is in the city’s LaSalle Park neighborhood, just south of downtown.
Coleman 22-year-old was held late Monday in lieu of $1 million bail.
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