Former St. Louis Officer Sentenced to Four Years for Beating Undercover Colleague

By Alyssa Wilson Published: July 16, 2021

Former St. Louis Officer Sentenced to Four Years for Beating Undercover Colleague

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By: Alyssa Wilson

WARNING: This story contains details of police violence.

A former St. Louis police officer has been sentenced to a little over four years in jail for beating a Black undercover colleague who he thought was a protester.

According to The Washington Post, 34-year-old Randy Hays pleaded guilty in 2019 to using excessive and unreasonable force. During the incident in September 2017, Hays and other white officers brutally beat Luther Hall before arresting him. Hall was working undercover to gather information on protests that erupted after a white officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Black man, Anthony Lamar Smith. Hall’s undercover partner, who was white, was arrested but not beaten.

After the attack, Hall was left with herniated discs, a tear in his rotator cuff and a hole above his lip that required sutures. He also suffered a bruised tailbone, a concussion and other injuries, according to court documents.

Hall also said the beating left him feeling withdrawn from who he was. In a written statement presented in court, he wrote, “I feel the same helplessness I felt the night of the assault, as I laid on the ground being beaten in the head, neck and torso. The days I can’t sleep, I lay in bed in the dark and all I hear is the sound of my camera impacting the ground and voices of people yelling commands at me.”

After the attack, he was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, The Washington Post reported. He must now take medication to address the harm he experienced during the beating, and he has had three surgeries in an attempt to relieve himself of pain.

The officers involved were identified one day after the beating and remained on the force until the FBI gained additional evidence in the form of text messages where they revealed they were excited to hurt protesters. One message read, “It’s going to be a lot of fun beating the hell out of these [expletives] once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart.”

Hays is the first of three officers sentenced for the beating. The other co-defendants in the case are Bailey Colletta, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers. Colletta pleaded guilty to making false statements before a federal grand jury. Boone was found guilty in June of aiding and abetting the deprivation of Hall’s civil rights under the color of law. Myers faces the charge of the destruction of evidence.

If you or someone you know is struggling from trauma triggered by this story, resources are available here.