This is Bob McCullik, a former St. Louis County prosecutor. However, he's not just any prosecutor. He's the prosecutor that was in charge of the Ferguson, Missouri's fatally shooting of Mike Brown by Officer Darren Wilson's case in 2014. And it was within that case in which Bob McCullik decided that he will not bring up any charges towards former officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Mike Brown. They discussed and debated the evidence among themselves before arriving at their collective decision. After their exhaustive review of the evidence, the grand jury deliberated over two days making their final decision. They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer Wilson and returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments. This isn't the first time that Bob McCullik did not bring up charges to an officer involved fatality shooting. On June 12th in the year of 2000, Earl Murray and Ron Beasley were at a Jack in a Box in the parking lot when two undercover officers, a police officer and a DEA officer, shot and killed the two unarmed black men while conducting an undercover sting on these two individuals in Berkeley, Missouri. Berkeley, Missouri is a city within St. Louis County, which at that particular time, Bob McCullik was the prosecuting attorney at the time handling the case. The officers involved in the shootings names were Robert Pski and Keith Kuscowski. The officers told a grand jury convened by McCullik that the suspects tried to escape arrest and then drove toward them. The jury declined to indict due to that information. And similar to the Michael Brown case involving a police officer shooting fatality, Bob McCullik released a statement to give an explanation as to why he would not indict these two officers. Aullik stated that the reason that he would not indict the two officers was based off of the 13 officers that were on scene that testified seeing Ron and Earl's vehicle moving forward towards those officers. However, after a thorough federal investigation, the results proved otherwise. The federal investigation results showed that the vehicle that Earl and Ron was in wasn't moving forward at all. The vehicle was actually moving in reverse. And according to the federal investigation, while the vehicle was moving in reverse, the two officers fired amongst each other 21 shots at Earl and Ron. Also in Bob McCullik's statement when mentioning how many officers testified seeing the vehicle move forward which was 13 was proven to be a lie as well. A St. Louis Post Dispatch journalist Michael Sorcin obtained secret grand jury tapes at the time. And in those grand jury tapes that was obtained by that journalist, it was proven that three only three of 13 officers stated they seen the vehicle that Ron and Earl was in at the particular time move forward towards the officers. Not 13, only three. But that isn't even the worst part about Bob McCullik's lie. The worst part about his lie is that out of the three officers that did testify, two of the officers were the officers that were involved in killing Earl and Ron. So after the federal investigation was finalized, the federal investigators decided that the shooting was justified because the officers feared for their safety. This case did not gain national or international recognition. However, locally, this case was significant for St. Louis and surrounding areas. It was labeled in St. Louis as the Jack in a Box case. And after the case was finalized, one of the officers, Robert Powski, continued to work as a police officer for 15 years. And Bob McCullik remained a St. Louis County prosecutor until the year 2019. After leaving office as the chief St. Louis County prosecutor, Bob McCullik leaves behind family ties his son Matthew McCullik, who was serving as a St. Louis County police officer in the very exact same county that Bob McCullik was a chief prosecuting attorney. And Bob McCullik also has more family ties in the Missouri justice system. He has a brother named Joseph McCullik who is a St. Charles County prosecuting attorney. And St. Charles County is a neighboring county of St. Louis County. But it wasn't until October 15th, 2023, nearly 4 years after Bob McCullik leaves office, that this occurred. Good evening. I'm Mike Bush and All Red has the night off. Hours ago, prosecutors charged Matthew McCulla with several felony counts following yesterday's incident at a trunk or treat event at a Kirkwood school. Tonight, the St. Louis County police officer and son of former county prosecutor Bob McCulla is in jail. New tonight, our Robert Townsen has reaction from a dad who witnessed the frightening ordeal. Mike Cory showing horror says initially he thought the gunfire in the school parking lot was not real but then the Kirkwood dad says the horror of everyone running happened right before his eyes. It was supposed to be a preh Halloween fun time for Corey Sha Horse, his 8-year-old son, and dozens of other Tilman Elementary School families. The main crowd had just started to kind of wander in. But witnesses told police within minutes offduty St. Louisis County police officer Matthew McCulla stood in the middle of a crowd in the parking lot at North Kirkwood Middle School. Held up his gun with a menacing grin on his face and a lifeless look in his eyes and and fired and waited for the crowd to react. Witnesses say McCulla fired at least five shots. Shawn Horse and other moms and dads quickly grabbed their frightened children. Police say other parents tackled Makulla and held him down until officers arrived. It was just complete chaos. One kid had completely run out of his shoes. Hundreds of people were at the trunk or treat event. Charging documents reveal around 4:30 Sunday afternoon, McCulla began harassing people, aggressively approached numerous attendees, and said, "You are all going to die." Nobody was hurt. It probably took place over the course of maybe 45 seconds, but at the time it seemed like it was 8 n minutes. I mean, it was like time stopped. Monday, prosecutors charged McCulla with five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of firstdegree endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful use of a weapon, and firstdegree terrorist threat. The 39year-old suspect has been a St. Louis County police officer for nearly six years. McCulla is also the son of former St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulla. Is a pretty scary thought because who do we turn to now for protection? In a statement, the McCulla family says in part, quote, "We also are painfully aware that an incident such as this can and does cause significant trauma to those, especially children and their parents, who witnessed such an event. Our thoughts and prayers are with those victims." While he was on the ground, he was still smiling. St. Louis County Police Chief Kenneth Gregory says McCulla is now on unpaid administrative leave, pending an internal investigation. McCulla is now sitting in jail on a $500,000 cash only bond. So Bob McCullik's son, Matthew McCullik, was aged 40 in 2023 when he committed these criminal acts. Matthew McCullik was also a St. Louis police officer at the very time that he committed these criminal acts as well. So let's look at this. Let's give this a logical analyzation. Let's look at all the factors. At the time that Matthew McCullik committed these crimes, he was a St. Louis County police officer. Matthew McCullik committed these crimes in St. Louis County. The prosecutors who are bringing charges on Matthew McCullik are former colleagues of Bob McCullik, which is Matthew McCullik's father. So basically, Matthew McCullik is sitting in the same exact office as his dad worked for nearly 30 years around these prosecutors who are in charge of the prosecution dynamics for Matthew McCauik's case. The level of conflict of interest could not be any greater in this particular case. So the St. Louisis County Grand Jury of Family and Friends indicted Matthew McCullik in November 2023 on 15 counts that included seven counts of armed criminal action, six counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of a terrorist threat, and a single count of unlawful use of a weapon. His bond was reduced from $500,000 to $250,000 on January 2nd, 2024. He paid 10% of that and made bond. So, Matthew McCullik was offered a plea deal before his court date by his dad's prosecutor buddies. You know, the friends and family over at St. Louisis County prosecution team offered Matthew McCullik a deal that is untypical in the realm of prosecution. And what is this untypical deal? Oh, it's called a blind plea deal. A blind plea deal in the most simplest form of explanation, it is a deal that gives the judge the totality of the decision of the punishment after the case is heard. So basically this deal excludes the jury and allows the judge to have full control over the case including the punishment and the judge is allowed to give the defendant whatever punishment that the judge sees fit. So Matthew McCullik took the deal, plead guilty to firing shots at a 2023 elementary school. His dad worked with all the judges nearly 30 years in that same St. Louis County Justice Building, which gave Matthew McCullik the assist of unfairness that he always wanted because on March 27th, 2025, the judge sentenced Matthew McCullik to 5 years probation. No jail time served. St. Louis County prosecutor Melissa Price Smith recently sat down with four. We asked if Makulla's family ties should have prompted a change in venue. I along with most people in our office believe that case should have been conflicted out to another office. Um I was hired by Bob McCulla. Many people in our office were hired by Bob McCulla. But she didn't run the show at the time the county took the case. Makulla's guilty plea came the same day Price was sworn in, taking over for Wesley Bell, who left for a role in Congress. What's more, our office did recommend prison time. What Mr. McCulla did was a blind plea. A blind plea puts all of the sentencing on the judge. The judge, Honorable Ellen Rabado, ordered Makulla in part to absolute sobriety and random drug testing as part of his probation. She also cited concerns for his safety in jail due to his family's history in law enforcement and the ability to keep closer tabs on him. She declined to further explain the sentencing to us. But former St. Louisis County Judge and now attorney Susan Block says mental health often plays a key role in sentencing, especially since most defendants eventually return to the community. They're all coming out. How do you want them? Block says there's a fine line between punishment and progress, and not everyone thinks the system strikes the right balance. whether a person can get rehabilitation in a locked facility and how they will learn how to deal with that when they were returned to the community has always been an issue. So whenever possible, I think judges do want defendants to get these services while they're in their community. But the Shaw family still questions whether justice was served. You know, you start reading about these things after having gone through something like this and you see that there's different sides and different angles to all this. Look on my hand. But yeah, the part of me that was there, if he kept walking and then just started shooting, remembers that chaos, you know, wishes, you know, that that there was more of a punitive aspect to this, more of a a jail, you know, a prison, something beyond just, you know, what was given out. Though he avoided prison time, McCulla's sentence does come with some pretty strict conditions. After pleading guilty to eight felonies, he was given 5 years of supervised probation, random drug testing, mandated therapy, no contact with victims, no firearms, and regular court check-ins. If he violates these rules, he could then be put behind bars. We reached out to McCulla's father, former county prosecutor Bob Mcola, who hung up on us. His uncle, St. Charles County Prosecutor Joe Mcola, declined to comment. Matthews attorney also declined to speak on behalf of himself or his client. His first court-ordered check-in is scheduled for July 11th. Cameron Bob, First Alert 4.