Kim Staton, a mother in St. Louis, Missouri, is demanding answers after a photo surfaced showing a police officer posing next to her dead son.
Staton’s son, 28-year-old Omar Rahman, was found dead on Aug. 8, 2016, in his Pine Lawn, Missouri, home.
The North County Cooperative responded to the call, and it was later found that Rahman died from an accidental drug overdose.
Since his death, though, Staton has heard little from the police regarding her son’s death.
“I really don’t know, actually, what happened to my son,” she said, according to St. Louis news station KMOV.
The KMOV reporter who obtained the photo chose to blur out the body and the face of the North County Cooperative police officer who was posing with the body because no wrongdoing has been determined at this time.
In the photo, the officer can be seen holding onto the deceased individual’s arm with a gloved hand while giving a thumbs up with the other.
When Staton was asked if there could be any good explanation for the photo, she replied, “No, because when they come to a call, they’re supposed to be there to help and protect, not doing what he was doing with thumbs up and a smirk on his face.”
Her attorney, Antonio Romanucci, agrees.
“I have seen thousands and thousands of forensic photographs, I have never seen a staged photograph of an officer next to a deceased body,” Romanucci told KMOV.
Romanucci is now demanding an investigation by an organization other than the Co-op.
“Who was there that allowed this to go on? Was there any sergeant involved? Those are the questions that need to be asked, and that’s what needs to be found here,” Romanucci said.
Romanucci also added, “Had you not received that photograph we wouldn’t know this. We would never have known this.”
North County Co-op Chief Tim Swope refused to go on camera for KMOV but said that the Co-op was conducting an investigation into the “totality” of the situation.
Romanucci is weighing a lawsuit against the Co-op in order to obtain more information.
“That’s what I am looking for, I’m looking for some answers,” Staton said.
The North County Co-op threatened KMOV for publishing and reporting on the photo because it’s “stolen property,” saying in a statement, “NCPC does not believe it is appropriate to comment on a matter related to 2 open criminal investigations.”
