Jennifer Lu

Jun 10, 2024 | missouriindependent.com | Alysia Santo |Rachel Lippmann |Jennifer Lu |Tom Scheck

by Alysia Santo, Missouri Independent June 10, 2024 In March 2018, a heartbroken mother named Donnita Stunson mailed a letter to the mayor of St. Louis asking for help. “I was born and raised in the city of St. Louis,” she wrote. “I was once proud of my city, until Dec. 22, 2017.”On that date, around 3 a.m., an unknown number of people with guns broke into the apartment that Stunson’s daughter Dominique Lewis had recently moved into.

Jun 6, 2024 | themarshallproject.org | Tom Scheck |Jennifer Lu |Rachel Lippmann

By Tom Scheck and Jennifer Lu, APM Reports; Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio In the first months of 2019, St. Louis leaders were facing a crisis. The city had endured the highest homicide rate in the nation for five straight years. By May, 70 people had already been killed, including a quadruple homicide. The city had budgeted for 100 more officers than were on the job; detectives were scrambling to solve cases.

Jun 5, 2024 | themarshallproject.org | Rachel Lippmann |Tom Scheck |Jennifer Lu

By Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio, and Tom Scheck and Jennifer Lu, APM Reports In the summer of 2019, a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer named Ronald Vaughan was assigned to the overnight homicide squad supervised by Sgt. Heather Taylor. Vaughan had somewhat of a checkered past. Two years before, he allegedly shoved and pepper-sprayed a pastor and shocked a local activist with a Taser during a peaceful protest, according to a lawsuit.

Jun 4, 2024 | themarshallproject.org | Tom Scheck |Jennifer Lu |Rachel Lippmann

By Tom Scheck and Jennifer Lu, APM Reports, and Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio On Shulte Avenue on the northside of St. Louis, the sites of the killings are just steps away from each other. Terrell Hall, 47, was killed near a brick one-story home at the intersection of Shulte and Mimika avenues in 2020. About 90 paces down the street, Andre Brookfield was shot to death in a car parked in the alley in 2012.

Jun 3, 2024 | themarshallproject.org | Jennifer Lu |Rachel Lippmann

By Jennifer Lu, APM Reports, and Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio In February 2021, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports began an investigation — later joined by The Marshall Project — into the struggles of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to solve homicides. While St. Louis’ record-high homicide rate was well-known, the police department’s ability to solve those homicides had received less scrutiny.