As if to prove the case for state leadership of its police department, St. Louis saw six different armed carjackings over the weekend.

In the last of the incidents, which were reported from Friday afternoon to early, Sunday morning, a 51-year-old man said he was forced at gunpoint to abandon his car in the Dutchtown neighborhood just after midnight.

KMOV TV reported three of four suspects were arrested following a car chase and foot pursuit. The suspects were said to be 19, 17 and 16 years of age.

In the other incidents, according to KMOV:

• A man had his car taken at gunpoint while buying gasoline Saturday night.
• A package delivery vehicle and a pizza delivery vehicle were taken at gunpoint in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday.
• A 17-year-old told police his vehicle was rear-ended and approached by the three occupants, two men and a woman. The woman took the youth’s car, with the two men following in their vehicle. She was later arrested.
• A 70-year-old man was accosted by several suspects and allegedly assaulted by a 39-year-old woman who claimed to have a gun and took his vehicle.

The chaos came just days after Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a bill placing control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under a board partially appointed by the governor. Similar to Kansas City, the board will be composed of the mayor and members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Kehoe had officially signed House Bill 495 on Wednesday, but repeated the act in a ceremonial signing Thursday in St. Louis in front of supportive members of the citty’s Police Officers Association.

“We don’t have to imagine what this would look like,” Kehoe said. “It was under [state] control for 120 years. Kansas City is still under the same model. This is not some new thing that somebody just thought of. This is a proven process that has worked in the past and we want to give it a shot again. We think it can only get better.”

The term “state control” is a misleading term, however, since board members joining the mayor would have to have been residents of St. Louis for at least three years, and the mayor, the St. Louis Police Officers Association and Ethical Society of Police would have input on who several of the members are.

St. Louis has been plagued not just with crime, but with ineffectual punishment: St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner resigned in 2023 after public outcry and an ouster lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, as well as legislative threats to replace her in the prosecution of violent crimes.

Outrage at Gardner’s failures to prosecute crime crescendoed after Tennessee teenager Janae Edmondson, in St. Louis for a volleyball tournament, was pinned between two cars in a crash caused by a suspect on probation. She lost both legs in the tragedy.

The motorist, Daniel Riley, was reported to be an unlicensed driver still on probation for armed robbery, despite some 100 bond violations and breaching house arrest.