On the morning of February 26, 2022, a violent encounter unfolded at a business in Jennings, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. At approximately 10:45 a.m., 17-year-old male De’Marion Jones entered J's Wireless, a cell phone store located in the 9300 block of Lewis and Clark Boulevard. Unbeknownst to him, an acquaintance was already inside the establishment waiting.
As Jones walked through the door, the individual inside, identified by authorities as 19-year-old Joeron Mottley, immediately initiated a confrontation.
Mottley, who was armed, opened fire upon seeing Jones, striking the teenager in the chest. Despite his injuries, Jones managed to flee the store and run into the parking lot in an attempt to escape the violence. Mottley pursued him outside and continued firing his weapon at the wounded teen. The entire sequence of events was captured on the store's video surveillance system, which later provided investigators with a clear account of the unprovoked attack.
St. Louis County Police officers from the Jennings precinct rushed to the scene just before 11:00 a.m. after receiving a call regarding a sounding security alarm. Upon their arrival, they discovered that a shooting had taken place and located the critically injured victim. Jones was urgently transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
In the days following the homicide, detectives from the Bureau of Crimes Against Persons secured a confession from the suspect. Mottley admitted to investigators that he shot Jones after seeing him enter the business. Authorities confirmed that the two young men were known to each other prior to the incident. On March 8, 2022, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Joeron Mottley with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was subsequently held on a $500,000 cash-only bond at the St. Louis County jail.
