BLM Rioter Who Murdered Retired St. Louis Police Captain Sentenced to Life in Prison without Parole
The 26-year-old man convicted of killing retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday.
Stephan Cannon’s sentencing comes after a jury convicted him in July of fatally shooting Dorn in June 2020. The 77-year-old was responding to a burglary alarm at a friend’s pawn shop during a night of Black Lives Matter rioting when Cannon shot him.
Cannon was convicted in July on all of felony charges he faced, including first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, stealing $750 or more, unlawful possession of a firearm, and three counts of armed criminal action.
Dorn’s widow, Ann Wood-Dorn, has said her husband would regularly respond when Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry’s burglar alarm was triggered. On the night of his death — June 2, 2020 — Dorn was defending the shop from looters around 2:30 a.m. when he was fatally shot.
Cannon was one of the robbers Dorn confronted before he was murdered.
His death was live-streamed on Facebook Live. During the 13-minute-long video that circulated online, a young man can be heard saying, “Oh my God, cuz … They just killed this old man at the pawn shop over some TVs … c’mon, man, that’s somebody’s granddaddy.”
Attorney Marvin Teer said Cannon fired ten shots at Dorn as he arrived at the scene and fired off warning shots to stop the looters, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Public defender Brian Horneyer argued during the trial that police had “tunnel vision” in accusing Cannon of the crime and suggested detectives relied on co-defendant Mark Jackson as their main witness despite Jackson being “a man who lies as easily as he breathes.”
Cannon continued to maintain his innocence during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, KSDK reported.
Wood-Dorn also spoke during the hearing, saying that her husband “became a victim of the very thing he fought against.”
Dorn’s son Brian Powell told Cannon: “I hope your eyes are woke. You still have time to get everything together and make amends with your maker.”
Then-St. Louis police Chief John Hayden previously described the night of Dorn’s death as “mayhem.”
Four police officers were shot, some 55 businesses were attacked, and a convenience store was set on fire. It was just one of countless nights of rioting that gripped nearly every major American city after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer.
Dorn, an African-American, retired from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2007 after 38 years of service. He became Chief of Police for the Moline Acres Police Department the next year.
On the first anniversary of the officer’s death, St. Louis County Councilman Tim Fitch told National Review he remembers Dorn as a “great friend” and “wonderful law enforcement officer.”
“He’s very much missed and the night that he was taken from our community was a horrible evening for everyone in St. Louis,” Fitch said. He added that the violent evening of unrest was “really fed by the defund the police crowd which really whipped up a lot of protests in the St. Louis area that ultimately led to Captain Dorn’s death.”
