Douglas Preston Buffer, 43, of Imperial has been charged for allegedly fleeing from St. Louis County Police officers, who were trying to arrest him because he was wanted on multiple warrants , according to court documents.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Buffer on Wednesday, March 20, with two counts of resisting arrest, each one a class E felony punishable by up to four years in prison. As of Thursday morning, March 21, he was being held in St. Louis County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond, court records show.
St. Louis County Police saw Buffer at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, driving a vehicle near the intersection of South Broadway and East Ripa Avenue near Jefferson Barracks Park. Because Buffer was wanted on multiple felony warrants, officers turning on their cruiser’s emergency lights and sirens and tried to stop Buffer, the case’s probable-cause statement said.
However, he allegedly fled from the officers at a high rate of speed and eventually crashed the vehicle he was driving into a fence and ran to a nearby wooded area. Officers could not find Buffer in the wooded area, the report said.
Later that day, though, officers were notified that Buffer came out of a wooded area in the 9800 block of Linn Avenue. Officers found Buffer again, and he tried to run away. Officers used stun guns and pepper spray and eventually took Buffer into custody, according to the report.
Buffer, who also has an address listed in Barnhart, was wanted by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office after he was charged on Feb. 7 for allegedly stealing a motor vehicle, watercraft or air craft, a class B felony that carries a penalty of five to 15 years in prison, and stealing $25,000 or more from an ATM, a class C felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison, court records show.
He also was on probation when he was arrested in St. Louis County. He had pleaded guilty in February 2016 in Jefferson County to receiving stolen property and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and in April 2019, he pleaded guilty in Jefferson County to tampering with a motor vehicle and possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to seven years in prison, according to court documents.
Those sentences were suspended after Buffer completed a treatment program in June 2020, and he was placed on five years’ probation.