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3 women die in shooting in East St. Louis
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
EAST ST. LOUIS -- Police are seeking a man who fled a service station after he approached a gasoline pump Saturday night and fatally shot three women who were seated inside a car with their children. Police identified the victims as Tanikia Harvey, 26; Jaimaca McDaniel, 24; and Raykel Gathing, 26, all of East St. Louis. They were rushed six blocks to Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. Police said none of the three children who also were in the Dodge Caliber had been struck by bullets. Police said the shootings occurred about 9 p.m. Saturday at the Crown Food Market, on the northern edge of downtown at Collinsville Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive. On Sunday, relatives placed a teddy bear and long-stem roses at pump number 6, where they women were shot. Detective Kenneth Berry said today that officers were seeking a man who fled the scene in a white 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis. They also arrested a man at the scene Saturday night, calling him a "person of interest" in the case. Berry said the suspect and the arrested man had been acquainted to the victims. He declined to discuss a motive. Berry said the women were friends. He said McDaniel had been the mother of two of the children in the car, and Harvey was the mother to the third. The children ranged in age from 1 to 8. Jay Makhluf, a co-owner of the store, said he was inside preparing to leave for the night when he heard at least three shots, then went outside to see a crowd gathering around the car. Makhluf said he did not see the suspect flee. He said the three women had been inside the store a few minutes before, but he didn’t notice if they had bought anything. "They were regulars here," he said Sunday. "They’d come in and buy sodas or snacks for the kids." Berry said police were reviewing information from the store’s surveillance cameras. Crown Foods is open 24 hours. Relatives who had gathered last night at Kenneth Hall hospital, on the east end of downtown, said they believed the shooting began with an argument between the suspect and one of the women, who was described as his former girlfriend.
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