ST. LOUIS 鈥 Tina Autry sat on a curb just outside a taped-off crime scene Monday afternoon, calling her friend鈥檚 phone. She feared his body was the one lying in a nearby parking lot next to his distinct, bluish-gray Dodge Charger with out-of-state, temporary tags.
As she waited for an answer, a crime scene technician held her friend鈥檚 buzzing phone about 10 feet behind Autry. The technician was dusting it for prints.
鈥淗e was such a good guy,鈥 Autry said of her friend, through tears, outside a White Castle at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Gravois Avenue after the shooting. 鈥淗e really did look out for everybody.鈥
The man, not yet identified by police, marked at least the 11th person shot, including five who were killed, over 72 hours in the city since Friday night.
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The spate of killings kicked off a four-month stretch that typically sees an increase in homicides as the weather warms.
Between 2018 and 2022 in 狐狸视频, about 42% of homicides have happened between May and August, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis. Last year, 84 of the city鈥檚 200 homicides happened during that stretch.
While investigators were canvassing the scene of Monday鈥檚 shooting, police leaders were hosting a news conference at police headquarters discussing the weekend鈥檚 violence, which stretched thin the short-staffed department, backing up call logs and pulling officers out of their districts to help others.
The department received 639 calls for service in a 12-hour period from Saturday afternoon to early Sunday, said 狐狸视频 police Maj. Ryan Cousins, commander of the department that oversees the homicide division.
Cousins noted that many of the calls came from downtown, where large crowds gathered on Washington Avenue, Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard and Olive Street. An internal department memo obtained by the Post-Dispatch outlined chaos that included more than 100 cars clustered near the Gateway Arch, numerous people armed with long guns and several reports of shots fired.
鈥淭hough quite alarming 鈥 the information that we have currently is that none of those incidents are related,鈥 Cousins said. 鈥淭hese were all random incidents.鈥
Cousins noted the department will soon begin its summer violence and cruising detail, which entails increasing police presence downtown and in other parts of the city.
The man shot in the parking lot of an empty drug store building near Gravois Avenue and Grand Boulevard Monday afternoon marked the city鈥檚 54th homicide of the year.
"This happens every day. It's crazy," said Tina Autry as she sobs while talking on the phone with a neighbor as police investigated the scene of a homicide in a parking lot near the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Gravois Avenue in 狐狸视频 on Monday, May 8, 2023. Autry said she heard the gunshots from her apartment and believes she might know the man who was killed based on the car the body was lying next to.
As Tina Autry and her daughter, Jaida Autry, waited to confirm the person killed was their friend, life went on around them 鈥 cars continued to pack the White Castle drive-thru less than 200 feet from where the man鈥檚 body lay on the ground while investigators worked.
鈥淗e had a good heart. He was a genuine person,鈥 Jaida Autry said. 鈥淗e looked out for me.鈥
David Carson and Joe Holleman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
The 狐狸视频 tracks the data behind reported homicides on an interactive map that allows readers to explore information in various ways.
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