Deshawn Thomas St Louis man arrested in execution shooting of homeless man in downtown following altercation. Latest incident of violent gun crime in city with fourth highest murder rate in the U.S.
Surveillance video captured the moment a man taking out his gun and aiming it at the back of the head of a homeless man and shooting ‘execution style’ his victim in downtown St. Louis Monday morning.
Footage shared online (see below) shows Deshawn Thomas, 23, standing behind the homeless victim as he sits on the sidewalk with his hands covering his ears.
After around 20 seconds, the gunman loaded his gun and shot the man at point blank range.
‘Oh my god. He just fucking killed him,’ says the individual filming the incident.
The shooting happened around 10:00 a.m. on Tucker near Lucas outside the Globe building. The identity of the homeless victim was not immediately known.
DISTURBING CONTENT
Man loads gun in broad daylight and executes homeless man in St. Louis.
Democrat cities are 3rd world countries.pic.twitter.com/ipP7j8ac0p
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 28, 2023
Latest string of violent crime in high murder capital
Police said witnesses told them there was an altercation prior to the shooting. The victim was found lying on the sidewalk suffering from a puncture wound to his head the RiverFront Times reported.
Thomas fled the scene and was picked up around 2:40 p.m., when cops found the suspect entering a library on Olive Street, and took him into custody KMOV reported.
It remained unclear if the gunman, who had a forehead tattoo and neck tattoo had a previous criminal history. Police were unclear whether the two men previously knew of each other prior to the fatal shooting.
The brazen open daylight shooting is the latest incident in a string of the violent crimes in St Louis, which has the fourth highest murder rate in the country.
In 2021, there were 200 murders, down from 263 in 2020 but up from 194 in 2019. So far, there have already been 25 murders in the city in 2023.
