Glendale Mayor: ‘It's a Time for Our People to Come Together’

Two newspaper clippings hang inside Glendale City Hall. The headline of the clipping on the first floor reads, “Glendale known as safe, tightly knit community.” Downstairs, another newspaper calls Glendale, “The safest place to live in St. Louis County.”

According to Glendale Police Chief Jeffrey Beaton, have not changed his perspective that Glendale is a great place to live.

“This type of incident is clearly uncharacteristic of this community,” Beaton said in an interview with Patch. “Glendale is a very safe and secure community. We enjoy a very low crime rate; we personally feel this is an isolated incident, confined within the home.”

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“This type of incident is very unusual for the city of Glendale and it has traumatically affected the entire community,” Beaton said. “This is a great community to live in, and I really would hate for our own residents to feel scared to walk on their own neighborhood.”

Chief Beaton said city and police staff had been increased to accommodate the myriad of police investigators, press and others who are eager to find out what happened at the house on 740 Hawbrook Road.

“It definitely affects our personnel, but we can still adequately provide to the community our normal policing duties,” Beaton said.

Glendale Mayor Richard Magee said he first heard about the incident Monday, when the city administrator called him with the news.

“It’s a shock - a tragedy that we as a community are going to have to deal with,” he said.

Magee said that in spite of local and national attention to this incident, he did not believe it would cast a negative light on the city.

“This was an isolated incident about a family that was going through a lot of turmoil,” Magee said. “I don’t think it affects people’s perception of Glendale as a great place to live. Today is a time for our people to come together.”

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