Family of suspect in police shooting calls son 'lost soul'

CLAYTON, Mo. — The family of an 18-year-old man suspected of killing a St. Louis County police officer has issued a statement calling the teen a “lost soul.”

Trenton Forster was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 33-year-old officer Blake Snyder while Snyder was responding to a report of a disturbance. Forster’s hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

The Forster family issued a statement Friday apologizing to Snyder’s family, and saying they can’t believe Trenton Forster “would do something like this.”

The suspect’s father, Bill Forster, told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch his son has struggled with drug addiction since shortly after he sustained a head injury in a car accident a few years ago.

Bill Forster also said he put his son in drug rehab programs that didn’t seem to work.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com