Todd Edwin Pigg, 38, of the Arnold area has been charged with felony assault and armed criminal action for allegedly shooting a pizza delivery man, wounding him in the chest and back, late March 13 at the Vogel Manor mobile home community just south of Arnold, authorities report.
After the shooting, Pigg reportedly fled from law enforcement officers, throwing homemade explosive devices out of his vehicle during an approximately 40-minute pursuit that began in the Arnold area and wound its way into Illinois and then back into St. Louis, ending at I-170 and Page Boulevard in St. Louis County, said Lt. Col. Steve Meinberg, Jefferson County undersheriff.
Meinberg said today (March 16) that he didn’t have an update on the delivery man’s condition, but the last he heard, the man was being treated at an area hospital and was conscious and talking.
Meinberg said the Sheriff’s Office got a call about 9:30 p.m. March 13 that shots were being fired in the Vogel Manor community.
“A lot of people heard the gunshots; there were a lot of gunshots,” he said. “Some witnesses saw what happened.”
Before the shooting began, Pigg had called Papa John’s to have a pizza delivered to his mobile home on Vogel Circle, but when the delivery man gave him the pizza, Pigg didn’t pay enough money, the probable-cause statement said.
After the delivery man tried to get the money he was owed but couldn’t, he started to walk to his vehicle to call his boss, but then he heard someone behind him, turned around and Pigg, who was displaying a 9mm handgun, allegedly started shooting at him, Meinberg said.
“Over a dozen rounds were fired at that point,” Meinberg said.
Then, the delivery man started running through the mobile home court, and Pigg allegedly chased him and continued shooting at him, Meinberg said.
The delivery man was shot once in the chest and once in the back, but survived, Meinberg said.
He said the delivery man eventually escaped into a neighbor’s mobile home, and he was transported by ambulance to an area hospital for treatment.
In the meantime, Pigg returned to his home, got in his own vehicle, a 2002 Chevrolet Malibu, and fled.
“The neighbors had given us a description of his vehicle, and as we’re pulling into (Vogel Manor), he’s pulling out, and they (deputies) recognize the vehicle and turn around and try to stop him, but he refuses,” Meinberg said. “So, now we’re chasing the suspect up I-55, and he (Pigg) crosses the (Mississippi) River into Illinois and continues north on the Illinois side. But somewhere he turns around and comes back south, crossing downtown (St. Louis) west on 64/40 and then gets on 170, headed north, and the Missouri (State) Highway Patrol puts spike strips out, and the vehicle ends up being disabled at 170 and Page.”
During the pursuit, Pigg allegedly threw out at least two homemade explosives that looked like dynamite sticks, Meinberg said.
“One of the pursuing vehicles announced that he (Pigg) threw an item out of the vehicle at 55 and Butler Hill (in south St. Louis County) and they saw it sparking,” Meinberg said. “At first, the assumption was it may have been his weapon (handgun). It’s raining this whole time, and we go to that location and search for the weapon (handgun) and don’t find it. Then, we have the same call (about an item being thrown out and sparking) at 64/40.
“Then, when they get him stopped, he doesn’t get out and run. Instead, he’s sitting in his vehicle, and they (law enforcement officers) see him lighting an item inside the vehicle and throw it out. Twice he did that.”
Fortunately, neither one of those items exploded, Meinberg said.
“Finally, he (Pigg) puts his hands in the air, but he refused to respond to commands, so we sent a K9 (police dog) in, and after the K9 apprehended him, the officers finished the arrest. He still was resistant and was able to ignite another homemade explosive. It flared up big and then died down and flared up again, but it didn’t explode.”
When he was finally taken into custody, Pigg had the handgun in his waistband, and officers allegedly found two backpacks in his vehicle, one filled with more homemade explosive devices, Meinberg said.
“We don’t know what his intentions were (for building and throwing out the devices), but apparently he didn’t make them properly,” Meinberg said.
After the St. Louis County arson and bomb squad removed the explosive devices from the vehicle, they went to Pigg’s home, Meinberg said.
“We got a search warrant for his trailer, and they (the St. Louis County bomb squad), along with the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) came down to the trailer, and we evacuated about 10 trailers nearby and went inside and found all kinds of wires and things like it (the home) had been booby-trapped.”
Meinberg said officers found hundreds more homemade explosive devices inside the mobile home, some of them hanging from the ceiling.
But since none of them seemed to work, they may be classified as just fireworks, Meinberg said.
He said Pigg lived alone but he didn’t know much else about him.
Meinberg also said he doesn’t know why Pigg had the devices or why he attacked the delivery man.
“It (the incident) wasn’t a robbery,” Meinberg said. “I don’t know what prompted him; we don’t know a motive.”
Meinberg said the delivery man is in his mid- to late 30s and had just moved to the area from Perryville.
In addition to deputies from the Sheriff’s Office, officers from the St. Louis County Police Department and from the Missouri and Illinois highway patrols were involved in the pursuit, Meinberg said.
He said no officers were hurt.
Pigg suffered dog bites during the arrest, Meinberg added.
On Monday, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Pigg with assault in the first-degree, a class A felony, and armed criminal action, an unclassified felony.
The assault charge is punishable by 10 to 30 years or life in prison. The other charge carries a minimum penalty of three years in prison.
Pigg was being held today in the Jefferson County Jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond.