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One woman cried in the hallway outside the courtroom. A man was told by bailiffs to leave after he yelled and called the judicial system “a joke.� Other parents exchanged hugs.

“It’s just disappointing,� said Kate Stacy about the judge’s decision in an interview outside the courthouse. “It was one of the worst days of my life.�

McCulloch, whose father was the county’s longtime prosecuting attorney, apologized to the children and the families. His lawyer and a psychiatrist who had worked with him said he was experiencing a severe psychotic episode that day and didn’t even remember firing his weapon.

“The fact that I was responsible for making people feel unsafe is something I will live with for the rest of my life,� Matthew McCulloch said in court.

In October 2023, McCulloch was working overnight shifts at the St. Louis County Police Department. He had been through a divorce months earlier, and he was skipping out on sleep to spend time with his kids during the day, his psychiatrist said in court on Thursday. One night, McCulloch was called to the scene of an especially brutal murder-suicide. It deeply impacted him.

He started acting strange.

He sent his brother odd text messages about a special connection with the band Tool and people and dogs looking at him strangely as he drove by them in his car. He heard voices. He thought he was receiving special messages from God. He became convinced that the world was going to end.

On Oct. 15, 2023, McCulloch got out of his car at a trunk-or-treat event — where children trick or treat at cars in a parking lot instead of going door-to-door — held for Tillman Elementary School at North Kirkwood Middle. He was wearing his police badge, witnesses said.

He began acting erratically, witnesses said, and some at the event confronted him. Then he said, “You’re all going to die,� and fired his gun into the air. Several people tackled him and took away his gun. No one was injured.

But in court on Thursday, parents recalled the terror they felt. People screamed. Some hid behind cars.

Tillman parent Bobby Shah said he locked eyes with his wife across the parking lot, and the realization hit them at the same time: “Have you seen the kids?�

“In that moment, I had no idea,� Shah said in court. “I had no clue.�

Several parents recounted similar experiences. Many said, since then, they didn’t want to attend large events. Their children, they said, now don’t like fireworks or loud noises.

Prosecutors argued that the trauma McCulloch inflicted on the children and families at the event that day meant he should spend three years in prison.

His lawyer, Brian Millikan, argued his client was no longer a danger to anyone. He’d gotten treatment and was taking medication for the bipolar disorder that caused his psychosis. He had kept up with all of the conditions of his bond, got a job and was keeping up a relationship with his children.

Judge Ellen “Nellie� Ribaudo said she was moved by the parents’ testimony.

But she also said McCulloch is a former police officer and the son of longtime prosecutor Bob McCulloch, who put scores of violent people away. He would be in danger in prison and would likely be transferred to another state — away from his family support system and out of the supervision of local judges. Ribaudo said she worried he wouldn’t get his medication. If that were the case, she said, his symptoms may reappear.

So she sentenced him to five years of probation. He’ll have to check in with the court every four months, she said. And if he violates the conditions of his release, he’ll receive a stiff prison sentence, Ribaudo said.

Shah, the Kirkwood parent, said after the sentence that he was conflicted. He thought Matthew McCulloch should’ve been sentenced to prison, but on the other hand, he felt like the judge heard him.

“I don’t know what the right answer is,� he said.

All you can do, he said, is “put some faith and trust in the judicial system.�