Frederick Butler Gets 13 Years After Driving a Stolen Challenger Through Pedestrians at a Cardinals Game
U.S. District Judge John A. Ross sentenced Frederick Butler, 44, to 13 years in federal prison on Tuesday for a June 22, 2025 chase in a stolen Dodge Challenger that ended with a wheel coming off on Forest Park Parkway.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri described the sequence in a release dated Wednesday, Oct. 21 . St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers tried to stop the Challenger, and Butler ran red lights and weaved through traffic. The officers crashed during the pursuit, injuring themselves and the occupants of another vehicle.
A St. Louis Metropolitan Police car. Representative image, not from the incident. Photo: Ryanandlenny / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
The route
The release says the Real Time Crime Center found the Challenger near Fourth and Chestnut Streets, in downtown St. Louis. Butler struck a car there and drove away through pedestrians attending a St. Louis Cardinals game.
Busch Stadium and downtown St. Louis, October 2011. Representative image, not from the incident. Photo: Dave Herholz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
On Forest Park Parkway a wheel came off the Challenger, and the resulting crash injured the driver of another vehicle. Butler ran on foot and discarded a .40-caliber Glock handgun. A cross-body bag he was carrying held fentanyl capsules and cocaine base.
The release gives no speeds, no pedestrian count and no names for the injured officers or drivers. It does not say where the Challenger was stolen, who owned it, or whether any pedestrian was hit.
The counts
Butler pleaded guilty in July to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. None of the three is a driving offense. The pursuit and the crashes appear in the release as background, and the sentence is for the drugs and the gun.
The release does not break the 13 years down by count, say whether the terms run together, or list a supervised-release period. It does not describe his prior felonies. A 2022 release from the same office on a different St. Louis chase listed up to 15 years for a felon-in-possession charge alone.
We've covered a Baltimore meetup organizer who got 96 months in a Pennsylvania federal stolen-car case, and a Waterford Corvette owner that State Police say fled troopers at over 150 mph and then wrote that the car had been stolen.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the ATF investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski prosecuted. The release does not say when Butler is due to report to prison.
The release reports no deaths. Is 13 years the right number for a driver who went through pedestrians at a ballgame, or too light?
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri, release of Oct. 21, 2026 ; same office, release of Dec. 16, 2022 .
⚡ Read the full article on Backfire News
Sign up for the Backfire Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook and Instagram .
