Jennifer Morgan-Tyra, then 41, was shot during a call May 8, 2015, after she refused to drop a gun and raised it toward Officer Andrei Nikolov, said Nikolov’s lawyer Brian Millikan.

Millikan said Nikolov intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify because the criminal investigation by the circuit attorney’s office was still pending.

“The idea that they don’t want to testify in the prosecution is not true,” he said. “We’re trying to balance out officers’ rights under the Constitution with the need and desire to prosecute these defendants.”

Millikan estimates that he has about 20 clients who may not testify because they remain under investigation.

“If you’re telling the truth, you have nothing to fear,” Gardner said.

But Millikan said that’s not true, citing the Stockley trial. “We just went through a murder trial that never should have been issued or prosecuted,” he said.

The St. Louis Police Officers Association said in a statement Tuesday that it has “serious concerns” about the effectiveness of Gardner’s oversight in police use-of-force cases and said the Force Investigation Unit should remain in place. It also said it would welcome reviews of cases by the attorney general’s office.

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Joel Currier Joel Currier is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter here: @joelcurrier. Follow Joel Currier Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today