Only on abc13: Former officer arrested on murder charge years after fatal shooting

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A former police officer arrested in Houston for murder, and this all stems from a police shooting that happened five years ago in Missouri when he was a cop.

Former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley shot and killed 24-year-old Anthony Smith after a high-speed chase in 2011. He was arrested Monday outside of the condo he shared with his fiancé in west Houston.

"He waved at me. I waved back," said neighbor Anthony Roger of the moments before the arrest. "And I noticed when he hit the corner, out of the blue about 6 or 8 U.S. Marshals in their vehicles just swooped in in a circle."

Roger lives next door to Stockley. He was inside his truck when they swarmed the 35-year-old former officer and decorated U.S. Army veteran.

He says he asked what was going on. They told him Stockley was being arrested for murder.

"It had to do with that incident in St. Louis, which I actually had heard about at the time. So I had no idea that that was him," Roger said.

According to the probable cause statement we obtained from the Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis, during the chase, Stockley is heard saying he's "going to kill this (expletive), don't you know it."

Once the victim stopped his car, he allegedly ordered his partner to ram the car. He went up to the driver's side door and shot Smith five times, killing him.

"We all knew what it was him when it happened. There couldn't have been any doubt about it," Smith's fiancé Christina Wilson told St. Louis media. "I was hoping we would've been at this point due to the fact that I knew it was murder from the beginning. I'm glad we're here."

Prosecutors say a gun was recovered from the Smith's car but was later determined by lab analysis to have only the Stockley's DNA on it.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in September 2013 and moved to Houston where he worked for oil and gas company TH Hill Associates as a project manager until this past January.

"Certainly shocked. He's a really nice guy," Roger said.

The US Attorney's Office and St. Louis police department chose not to file charges after their initial investigation. According to prosecutors, the police department's internal affairs division brought them additional evidence in March that convinced the Circuit Attorney she had enough evidence to move forward with presenting the case to a grand jury.

"Life is strange," Roger said. "You live next door to somebody and you find out things, and that's kind of odd."

Stockley is scheduled for an extradition hearing Wednesday morning in Harris County Court.