Ja’ymier Davis, East St. Louis, Illinois teen boy to be charged as adult in shooting and killing of 15-year-old teen girlfriend’s 5 family members in planned attack after teens were forbidden to live together at mom’s home.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult after prosecutors say he and his 15-year-old girlfriend carried out a planned attack that killed five members of her own family in East St. Louis, Illinois over the weekend.
Prosecutors are also seeking to have the girl (“W.T.”) tried as an adult, First Alert 4 reported. The boy, since identified as Ja’ymier M Davis and girl according to social media were identified as boyfriend and girlfriend.
The victims were identified as Quentin L. Thompson, 21; Devin D. May, 24; Shania W. Thompson, 25; Cherie L. May, 49; and Patricia A. May, 74. Two other relatives, Tiffany Thompson and Santosha Scott, survived the shootings.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly during a Sunday press conference described the incident as a ‘targeted mass shooting against a family.’
The fatal shootings unfolded at three separate locations, within just a few miles of each other, officials said. A timeline of when exactly the shootings happened has not been provided.
An investigation into the shootings began after human remains were reported on Sunday at the Samuel Gompers Homes public housing complex, according to Kelly.
According to prosecutors, Ja’ymier Davis faces 12 felony charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, vehicular hijacking and dismemberment of a human body after investigators allege Patricia May’s thumb was cut off according to ABC 7 Chicago.
The teens were arrested after troopers stopped a vehicle in a state park on Sunday after the teens forcefully taking a 2015 white Chevy Traverse, Kelly said
Lamarion Smiley, whose wife survived the attack, said the motive was the teens’ relationship. He claims the pair created a hit list on Instagram because they wanted to eliminate family members who opposed them being together. Smiley also alleged the gun used in the killings was stolen from the 15-year-old’s mother after she unlocked a lockbox and took the firearm.
‘Her daughter took the keys from her purse, unlocked the lockbox, and took the firearm,’ he added. ‘The police were notified as soon as they found out that the firearm was taken.’
Smiley said his wife was one of the victims but that the pair had run out of bullets and were unable to kill her.
Smiley indicated that be believes mental illness was to blame.
Marcus May, the father of the 15-year-old, said tensions had been building between the teen and her parents after they decided to homeschool her because of behavioral problems at school. He also claimed that the teen girl had previously run away from home and used her mother’s debit card without permission.
It is alleged that the unidentified 15-year-old teen girl was upset that her boyfriend, Davis, wasn’t allowed to live with her at her mother’s home after being thrown out of his home.
‘I can’t show her no sympathy,’ May told CBS News. ‘She chose to do this.’
Police asked anyone with additional information about the shootings to contact East St. Louis police or Illinois State Police.
According to court filings the shootings mostly occurred over the weekend, but one victim who died, May’s sister Cherie May, was shot days earlier.
Davis is accused of killing Marcus May’s mother, Patricia May, and cutting off her right thumb just days later.
East St. Louis is a city of about 18,500 residents located in the southwest part of the state.
