Homicide detectives in Missouri with the St. Louis County Police Department are investigating a murder outside of a convenience store in St. Louis.
According to Sgt. Tracy Panus, a police spokeswoman said the shooting happened around 5 p.m. near a convenience store in the 300 block of Chambers Road, located in Riverview.
Officers found an adult woman suffering from a gunshot wound. Panus said she was pronounced dead at the scene after officers attempted to offer her aid.
The victim has been identified as 34-year-old Laruth Jones.
Customers at the store shared that Laruth was a regular.
“I go to this store every day. Every day I come to the store and I would never want to come back to the store to see somebody laying on the ground like that and it’s very heartbreaking to see somebody’s mom or loved one, period, and have to deal with this,” said one man who asked to remain anonymous. “She’s loved around here. Everybody knows her, she doesn’t bother anybody.”
It was reported that Laruth’s Mercedes was stolen after she was shot. It was found later in St. Louis. The vehicle was burned and unoccupied.
It is not being classified as a carjacking because she was not in the vehicle when a suspect stole it. The car was found burned late Sunday night in St. Louis City. It was in an alley behind Linton Avenue in the College Hill neighborhood.
A neighbor who lives nearby on Chambers Road, Jeremeah Reeves, said he was in the middle of his daily routine when shots rang out around 5 o’clock Sunday night near his Riverview home.
“My uncle was here putting the refrigerator in my grandma‘s and all I can hear was pop, pop, pop. There were four or five quick shots really fast. The worst thing about it is I didn’t even freak out because that’s what happens every day around here,” Reeves said.
St. Louis County police say those shots killed jones in the parking lot of Raqqa Market on Chambers Road.
The store owner said Jones came to the store to buy something and was in the parking lot for about a half-hour before she was shot.
“I hate to say it, but when I heard those shots it sounded like death,” Reeves said.
The owner showed local news a video of what happened but didn’t allow them to record it. It showed a person getting out of a white SUV and running over to Jones’s car, a red Mercedes, and getting in it just after she had stepped away from it. When she realized what was happening, she tried to shoot the person to stop them but they fired back killing her and driving off with the car.
Reeves said he was taking out the trash this morning when he ran into Jones’s father.
“He said it was just a shock. He’s just like she only lives five or six blocks down and they live five or six blocks down from them. It was a red Mercedes that was it. We were just talking about how senseless this is, how senseless it all is. It’s so hard,” Reeves said.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the St. Louis County Police Department at 636-529-8210 and speak with investigators. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous or be eligible for a reward, you can contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (8477).
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