St. Louis, MO – Michael Gladney, 41, of St. Louis, was arrested this morning after being charged in a federal criminal complaint dated March 30, 2018.

According to the affidavit submitted in support of the complaint, on March 19, 2018, at approximately 12:40 p.m., Gladney and three other people entered Vincent’s Jewelers located at 11733 Olive Boulevard, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63141, for the purpose of committing a robbery.  These individuals ordered the workers to the rear of the business at gunpoint.  Gladney and two other individuals were armed with a firearm and the fourth individual was armed with a pipe.  

The individuals gained access to the jewelry inside the case by discharging a firearm into the case.  Gladney and another individual used the pipe to smash the glass.  He and two other individuals took numerous pieces of jewelry from the cases.

During the course of the robbery, Gladney shot himself.  As he ran away from the glass case, a trail of blood was left behind.  The trail of blood was discovered leading from the glass case outside to the location where the get-a-way vehicle was parked.

St. Louis County Police Department (SLCPD) Crime Scene Detectives responded to Vincent’s Jewelers to process the scene and obtained multiple samples of the blood from the trail of blood Gladney left after he shot himself.  SLCPD Crime Lab was able to develop a DNA profile from the blood samples and was placed into the CODIS database.  A search of the CODIS database resulted in a DNA match to            Michael Anderson Gladney.

Gladney was charged with one felony count of armed robbery and one felony count of possessing and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Gladney was taken into custody without incident and made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in St. Louis this afternoon.  The United States Attorney requested that Gladney be detained pending trial.  

As is always the case, charges set forth in the complaint are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

This case is being investigated by the Creve Coeur Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the St. Louis County Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Beth Orwick is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.