Police investigate a crime scene where an 8-year-old girl was shot and killed on Friday, August 23, 2019 in the 1100 block of Union Boulevard in St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS — An 8-year-old girl was killed and three others were injured in a shooting Friday near a restaurant in the city’s Academy neighborhood, according to police.
The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. outside Harold’s Chop Suey restaurant at 1122 Union Boulevard.
Two 16-year-old boys were in stable condition with one shot multiple times and the other shot in the arm. A woman in her 40s was shot in the leg and was in critical but stable condition. St. Louis police Chief John Hayden said “two or three” of the victims were related.
Hayden pleaded for the public’s assistance with the investigation, saying an undisclosed number of people had been detained for questioning.
One of the teen boys who was shot told Hayden he didn’t believe he was the intended target.
“It’s just unfortunate that people aren’t being respectful of others, it’s just hard to deal with,” Hayden said.
Witnesses who stayed on the scene say they saw a man rush over to try to save the 8-year-old girl.
The shooting occurred about a block north of Soldan High School, where a football exhibition was held Friday night. Fights broke out at the event, and police tried to clear the area when shots rang out, according to Hayden.
The girl had attended the football event with her family, Hayden said.
Police believe a shot was fired at another football exhibition Friday at Parkway North High School in Creve Coeur. There were no injuries or damages reported.
Eight area high schools were participating in the Parkway North event, which was canceled after “numerous disturbances/fights” broke out about 8:15 p.m., said St. Louis County Police spokesman Sgt. Benjamin Granda.
Here are the 10 St. Louis area children killed by gun violence
2 years old: Kayden Johnson
2-year-old Kayden Johnson was home with his mother, Trina'ty Riley, 18 in the 5900 block of Ferris Avenue in the Mark Twain I-70 Industrial neighborhood when he was shot to death. So was his mother.
They were found dead shortly before midnight on April 30. Police did not have information on a motive or a suspect at the time. Family members of Riley or Johnson could not be reached for this story.
3 years old: Kennedi Powell
Kennedi’s father was handing out slices of pizza to her and several of her friends on the night of June 9 in the 4600 block of Michigan Avenue. Then a white car with heavily tinted windows pulled up. Kennedi’s mother, Nyeshia Haymore, thought maybe it was a friend stopping by to say hello.
A window rolled down, and all Haymore could see was a black handgun, flashes of light, and booms that left her ears ringing.
When the shooting stopped, Kennedi lay on the sidewalk, shot in the chest, a slice of pizza still in her hand.
Police took Kennedi’s father, Devation Powell, to the homicide division and grilled him, convinced he had made enemies who had targeted him, Haymore said.
“I remember them coming in the room saying, ‘We can’t get him to talk, he must not give a (expletive) about his daughter,’” she said. “They don’t believe that I don’t have a reason for somebody to want to kill me. And they’re sitting here yelling.”
Still, Haymore said she understood officers’ frustrations. There aren’t witnesses, she said, and little evidence.
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “It’s like this neighborhood itself has become a target.”
11 years old: Charnija Keys
Charnija and her mother, Jessica Bailey, had just gone to bed on the night of June 10, at their home in the 1500 block of North 20th Street in the Carr Square neighborhood.
Bailey, 31, awoke to the gun shot. Charnija had picked up her mother’s 9 mm pistol from beneath the bed and accidentally shot herself in the head, Bailey said.
Bailey bought the gun at a pawn shop for protection. Two masked men in May tried to snatch her purse as she was walking to a bus stop downtown after work. She had warned Charnija never to touch the gun, but “she was just a curious kid.” She speculated that her daughter’s interest might have come from playing hours of Fortnite, a popular video game.
“That was the first time that gun was fired,” she said. “I wish I would have put it up. I wish I would have never got it. I blame myself every day.”
Police seized the gun and are still investigating the shooting.
Charnija was a fifth-grader at George Washington Carver Elementary School. Bailey described her daughter as an adventurous tomboy who loved riding her bike and wrestling with her cousins.
“Everybody loved her,” Bailey said. “She was the happiest kid in the world. I miss her so much.”
Thirty-one days after Charnija’s death, Bailey gave birth to a son, Pasquale.
16 years old: Myiesha Cannon
Myiesha was shot early on the morning of June 12 while visiting a neighbor’s home in the 4400 block of Lexington Avenue in the Greater Ville neighborhood. She was a student at Sumner High School and would have been in 10th grade.
Her mother, Latrice Cannon, said she didn’t realize Myiesha had left home until she heard a gunshot at about 1:25 a.m. and ran next door. She found her daughter dead on the neighbor’s couch.
Police have labeled the shooting as a “suspicious sudden death,” not a homicide. ‘There are so many stories,” Cannon said, about how Myiesha died.
Neighbors said the Cannons have since moved away. Erica Johnson, 39, who lives across the street, said neighbors have suspicions about who killed Myiesha, she said, but either don’t trust police or are protecting their friends.
“Everybody out there knows what happened. They know who killed that girl,” she said. “If I knew that dude’s name, I would give his name up. That could have been my kid.”
Children are becoming targets of violence, Johnson said, in feuds among their relatives.
“They hit them where it hurts,” she said. “These young adults have no conscience. They don’t care about anything.”
15 years old: Derrel Williams
Derrel was shot in the early morning hours of June 26. He was outside with three friends, a few miles from home.
He lived with his father, aunt and cousins in a one-story brick bungalow at the end of Queens Avenue in the Mark Twain neighborhood, a street of brick cornices and dormer windows.
His aunt, Michelle Jenkins, 42, said he loved hanging out with his family. And he was growing up, turning into an intelligent man.
Derrel was good about saving his money, she said, but refused to put it in the bank, even at the urging of family. Jenkins thinks that's why her nephew was shot.
Now she’s frustrated with progress on the investigation into his death and doesn’t understand how St. Louis County police seem to close cases so much faster.
“In two days, they’ve got the suspect locked up,” she said. “I just don’t think the police give a damn about little black kids being killed out here like that.”
16 years old: Kristina Curry
Kristina was found dead at about 5 a.m. on May 23 in a rear parking lot at Roosevelt High School. She was shot multiple times.
A St. Louis Public Schools spokesperson confirmed that Curry had withdrawn from Roosevelt on April 1. Her home address was in the 3100 block of Oregon Avenue, not far from the high school.
Her family could not be reached for this story.
10 years old: Eddie Hill IV
Eddie was killed in a drive-by shooting while on a porch with his father and other adults on July 19. It was about 8:30 p.m. at a home in the 4700 block of Page Boulevard near the intersection with Marcus Avenue, police said.
Police said his shooter fired from an assault rifle in a passing vehicle.
Nobody answered the door Thursday at two houses that looked to be occupied, near the intersection where Eddie was shot.
7 years old: Xavier Usanga
Xavier Usanga, 7
Xavier was shot Monday in the backyard of his family’s home in the 3500 block of North 14th Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
His family called him “God’s child.” He was born about a month before expected and weighed less than 3 pounds — the youngest of six children, and the only boy, his mother said.
Doctors told her Xavier would need a respirator for weeks, but he started breathing on his own in five hours. They said there wouldn’t be any breastfeeding, and he was breastfeeding in 24 hours, she said.
“He was born with a smile on his face, and he died with a smile on his face,” said Dawn Usanga.
She and her husband, Ifiok Usanga, said they had mixed emotions when they learned police had made an arrest in their son’s killing.
“I know what it’s like to go to prison,” said Ifiok Usanga, 48. “I’m not cheering for him, but I feel sorry for him. I know he didn’t mean to kill my son. But they’re going to give him a lot of time. He killed a child. In a way, he’s lost his life just like my son lost his."
A uniformed officer was among those who stopped by to offer his condolences Thursday.
Ifiok Usanga said people aren’t calling the police because they don’t care.
“I don’t think black kids care about other black kids, or older black people care about black kids,” he said. “I’m so tired of hearing Black Lives Matter. Do they? … when this happens, nobody’s talking.”
Click here for video interview with Xavier's father, Ifiok Usanga.
Dawn Usanga said she feared her son would end up like the young men who had been hanging out across the street from their house in recent months, carrying guns, swearing and walking around like they owned the place.
In his short life, though, he made his parents proud.
His mother said he recently showed her how he cheated while playing a card game.
“And then he did it,” she said. “All I could say was, ‘Give me that card under your leg.’ So he did.”
And he smiled.
16 years old: Jashon Johnson
Jashon was shot to death about 10:30 p.m. June 8 at Red Bud and Margaretta avenues, west of Fairground Park, police said. Efforts to reach his relatives were unsuccessful.
Calvin Roberts, 53, who lives in a home at that corner, pointed out buck shot holes in a window and side of a house, marking the spot where he died.
Roberts blames recent shooting deaths of children on a combination of problems including widespread drug use, the prevalence of guns and a lack of parenting.
“The world wants to be tough now,” he said. “People don’t have compassion anymore. There’s so much hate and anger.”
17 years old: Devaun Winters
Davaun was found fatally shot shortly before 4 a.m. July 15 at a gas station at 4355 South Broadway in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. A 16-year-old boy in the car was uninjured.
Winters lived in the 3200 block of California Avenue. His family could not be reached for this story.
