ST. LOUIS — Antonio “Tony†Valentine followed in his Uncle Scott’s footsteps most of his life.
Both played football and wrestled at Beaumont High School. Both built long careers in local law enforcement. And both acted together as the dependable ones the family could call in a crisis.
So when ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police Detective Antonio Valentine, 42, was killed Wednesday in the line of duty in a head-on car crash, it was his uncle, Scott Valentine, a sergeant in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ police department, who was at his hospital bedside in his final moments.
“I wanted him to know I was there with him. He wasn’t alone,†Scott Valentine said Friday, taking a break from planning his nephew’s funeral. The service will take place at 9 a.m. Dec. 10 at The Cathedral Basilica of ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
In the wake of the death, Valentine recalled the day his nephew was born.
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Scott Valentine was 6 years old at the time. His 18-year-old sister would raise her son, Antonio, in the same ºüÀêÊÓƵ household as his aunts and uncles.
“I remember I couldn’t color in the lines that day at school because I was so excited to see the new baby,†said Valentine. “I took it as a huge responsibility. I was an uncle in the first grade, and I wanted to set the example.â€
Valentine said he was a role model, but in many ways, he and Antonio were like brothers. He remembers playing with slot racecars together so long one day when they were kids that they put a hole in the racetrack and then another hole in the carpet underneath.
“The family used to call him Scott Jr. because he was always so much like me,†Valentine said.
Through high school, the Valentine name followed Antonio, as he had the same teachers and coaches as his uncle and other relatives at Beaumont.
“I always told him: ‘You have one thing that’s going to be yours no matter what and that is your name,’†Valentine said. “Even after you die, you are a Valentine. Don’t screw that up.â€
After Antonio Valentine served in the Army in Iraq and Kyrgyzstan from July 1999 to February 2000, he decided to become a police officer like his uncle. He self-funded his way through the Eastern Missouri Police Academy, his uncle said.
Antonio Valentine started his law enforcement career at the Cool Valley Police Department before his uncle urged him to go to a larger agency; he joined the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County department in 2007.
The two would share tips, gripes and stories through their careers.
Like his uncle before him, Antonio Valentine served in an auto crime unit and eventually a special drug enforcement unit. That’s where, according to the department, he was working when a man driving a car fleeing a stop by another drug unit vehicle crashed into the unmarked police minivan Valentine was driving.
Valentine was rushed to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where his uncle arrived in his ºüÀêÊÓƵ police uniform to be by his side.
“Under normal conditions, he would always take my advice,†Scott Valentine said, his voice filled with emotion. “I told him to feel my energy to know he’s not going to be by himself. I told him to listen to me and come back. But he couldn’t.â€
“He was a great father, a great friend and a good man,†he said.
In the end, the uncle said his nephew did the Valentine name proud.
Antonio Valentine was a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County detective and veteran. He was killed as a result of a crash Wednesday in Bellefontaine Neighbors.
The deceased officer was identified as Antonio Valentine, 42, who had been with the county department since 2007. The crash happened Wednesday afternoon.