Respects encouraged along funeral procession route for slain St. Louis County officer

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Officials finalizing plans for Thursday’s funeral for St. Louis County police Officer Blake Snyder are encouraging people to turn out to pay respects along a funeral procession route that will stretch about 50 miles across the St. Louis metropolitan area.

They also warned of some traffic congestion, especially along Interstate 64 (Highway 40).

Snyder, fatally shot in the line of duty Oct. 6, will be remembered at a funeral at 11 a.m. at the St. Louis Family Church, at 17458 Chesterfield Airport Road in Chesterfield.

The church will accommodate about 2,000 family and police officers in its sanctuary, with large closed-circuit TV screens for the public in an adjacent building and outside.

The hearse carrying Snyder’s body to the church from Wednesday’s visitation at the Kutis Funeral Home Affton Chapel, at 10151 Gravois Road in South County, on Thursday morning will pass the police department’s Affton precinct station, where Snyder was assigned.

After the funeral, the procession will go east on Edison Avenue to Baxter Road to Interstate 64 (Highway 40) east. Then it goes north on Interstate 270 to Highway 367, and northeast across the Lewis and Clark Bridges into Alton. It turns northwest on the Great River Road (Highway 100) to Clifton Terrace Road north to West Delmar Avenue (Highway 3), and finally east to the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery at 2308 West Delmar Avenue in Godfrey

Police said Edison Avenue between Long Road and Baxter Road in Chesterfield will be closed from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Thursday. They “strongly encouraged” a public show of support along Edison. Chesterfield police plan traffic updates on Twitter at @ChesterfieldPD.

Motorists also should watch for intermittent closures of all eastbound lanes in I-64 beginning at 12:30 p.m. The Missouri Department of Transportation plans to provide Twitter updates at @MoDOT_StLouis.

County police are keeping an updated online map of businesses holding fundraising events for Snyder’s family and The BackStoppers, a nonprofit that provides financial support to families of fallen first responders.

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