ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Illinois — A gunman who killed himself after fatally shooting a co-worker and critically injuring a police officer in Dupo on Sunday was also convicted of killing a customer outside a strip club in 2009.
Reginald O. Allen, 40, was armed with an AR-15 rifle Sunday afternoon during a crime spree that included multiple shootings, a getaway Bobcat and the theft of a police patrol car, authorities said.
Allen on Sunday shot and killed Darryl T. Mantz, 46, of Belleville, in a yard three blocks from Allen's home, police said. Allen and Mantz worked together rehabbing homes.
Allen then drove away on the same Bobcat — a piece of construction equipment also known as a skid steer — that he'd driven to the home on McBride. He smashed the vehicle into a fence as he was headed toward Interstate 255, police said, and abandoned it under the highway.
When a Dupo police officer confronted him, Allen shot the officer in the shoulder and neck and stole the officer's car, authorities said. At some point during an hourslong standoff at Allen's home, Allen died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Master Sgt. Brad Clossen of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.
The Dupo officer was in critical condition Monday at a St. Louis hospital but is expected to survive, said Dennis Plew, the police chief of Dupo. The officer is 49 and has been in law enforcement for 12 years, including stints with the Roxana and Cahokia police departments.
"He's looking at more surgeries down the road," Plew said. "He should have a full recovery, it's just going to be over a long, long period of time."
Allen was found dead inside his garage.
He was known to law enforcement well before Sunday afternoon's shooting.
Allen was a bouncer at an East St. Louis strip club owned by his family. He killed Anthony Rice outside the club, the now-shuttered City Nights, with his pickup truck in October 2009.
Allen was initially charged with reckless homicide but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of mob action. He was sentenced in 2016 to serve one year in prison.
Allen, a white man, had taunted Rice, a Black man, and his brother with racial comments. During the resulting fight, one of Rice's friends pulled out a gun and fired into the air. According to police reports, Allen ran back through the club to a rear lot, pulled his truck around, chased Rice around a utility pole and fatally struck him in the road. Allen told police he was only trying to avoid being shot and didn't know if he hit Rice.
St. Louis alderman and attorney Michael Gras weighed in on Allen's latest crimes on Twitter Monday.
"Not exaggerating when I say he was one of the worst people I ever encountered," Gras posted.
Gras' former law firm represented Rice's family.
"That whole incident was just horrific," Gras told the Post-Dispatch. "He was violent; he was racist. He certainly deserved more than a year for that."
Sunday's shootings had no racial overtones, Clossen said; both the victim and suspect were white.
But police were left Monday to sort out what may have sparked Allen's rage.
"We're looking into whether it was money-related, drug-related, a female issue," Clossen said. "We're not sure, so we're looking into every aspect of it."
Relatives for Allen and Mantz could not be reached Monday.
As a felon, Allen should not have had a gun. How he obtained the rifle is one of many questions investigators are trying to answer.
The home where Mantz was killed is next door to one owned by Allen's mother and being rehabbed by Allen.
Neighbors who saw Mantz get shot told investigators it happened quickly.
"No confrontation, no yelling, just shooting," Clossen said.
When Allen stole the officer's car, the officer's rifle was still inside of it. He parked the vehicle in his driveway, then barricaded himself in his home.
Police surrounded Allen's home and got a warrant to search it. At about 9:20 p.m., they went inside and didn't find him. Then police entered the garage and found Allen dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Clossen said.
No shots were fired at officers during the standoff. Police don't know how soon into the standoff Allen killed himself. They found the AR-15 next to his body, Clossen said.
The neighborhood on McBride, in unincorporated St. Clair County, is northeast of Highway 3 and I-255 and about 7 miles from St. Louis. More than a dozen law enforcement and EMS agencies were at the scene.
Residents waited in their cars and at a nearby gas station for word of when they could return to their homes. Residents were allowed to return to their homes by midnight.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Annika Merrilees contributed to this report.)
