The city of St. Louis, Mo. experienced a total of six homicides in a span of 12 hours — an unusually high number for the city given its 2014 homicide total of 159.
The first shooting, which occurred at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, was the result of a home invasion in Fountain Park. The victim was identified by the city’s medical examiner’s office as 34-year-old Leon Rivers. A 29-year-old suspect is in custody.
According to police, the sixth homicide was reported around 8 a.m. Thursday. A 32-year-old woman identified as Cheri Simpson was shot to death in her car south of downtown St. Louis while waiting at a stoplight.
Police have arrested her ex-boyfriend.
In a press conference Thursday, Police Chief Sam Dotson and Mayor Francis Slay condemned the violence.
“To see this much violence going on in our city within such a short period of time, it is absolutely outrageous,” Slay said. “It’s out of hand. It disgusts me.”
Other homicides include a man killed at an apartment complex, two men shot during a robbery, and the shooting of a night manager at a local hotel. The AP reports:
Shortly after midnight, a man was found shot in the hallway of an apartment complex in the Carondelet neighborhood. Police say Kenny Burgett, 19, was confronted by his girlfriend’s former boyfriend. The 22-year-old suspect challenged Burgett to a fist fight before shooting him, according to police.
Just eight minutes later, two men died after a shooting and robbery on a street in the Dutchtown neighborhood. The victims were identified as Eric Lee, 21, and Jerivon Taylor, 20.
Scott Knopfel, 50, was shot in the head at the Drury hotel near Interstate 44 just before 3 a.m. after he struggled with his assailant while opening a cash drawer. Surveillance video shows the suspect, whom the manager mistook for a patron, entering the hotel and leaving less than 30 seconds later. He can be seen pulling out a handgun and vaulting a counter, then leaving the hotel in the same manner.
Slay and Dotson linked the overnight violence to crime increases in the area documented since the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer, according to the Huffington Post. The two reiterated the need for more muscle in the city, calling for 160 new officers over the next two years.
SOURCE: Huffington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
