On March 16, 2021, 19-year-old Johnnie Jones lost his life in a violent incident in the Near North Riverfront neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. The events unfolded in the early evening when Jones, accompanied by his best friend, 20-year-old Kortlin Williams, and a third unidentified male, traveled to the 1100 block of Montgomery Street. The group had arrived at the location under the impression they were there to conduct a transaction involving marijuana.
Investigators later determined that the meeting had been arranged through Facebook Messenger, where the victims believed they were selling a quantity of the drug to interested buyers.
When Jones and his companions arrived at the designated meeting spot inside their vehicle, they were ambushed. The individuals they had arranged to meet, identified by authorities as Antaveon Bernard Le'Vell Kent and Demorion Little, opened fire on the car. The gunfire struck all three occupants. Police officers responded to the intersection of 9th Street and St. Louis Avenue around 5:35 p.m. after the shooting was reported. Upon arrival, they discovered Jones and Williams had sustained fatal injuries; both were pronounced dead at the scene. The third man in the vehicle survived the attack but was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. Investigators found approximately 621 grams of marijuana in the victims' car, confirming the motive was a drug-related robbery.
Law enforcement officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration launched an investigation into the triple shooting. Digital evidence proved crucial, as authorities traced the Facebook communications used to set up the robbery back to the suspects. Antaveon Kent, who used the online moniker 'Trauma Traumatized,' admitted to utilizing the social media platform to select the targets and coordinate the scheme with his co-defendant.
Both suspects were eventually apprehended and faced federal charges. Antaveon Kent pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, attempting to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In February 2023, a U.S. District Judge sentenced Kent to 26 years in prison for his role in the murders. Demorion Little, who was also implicated in a separate fatal shooting of another man named Rocoby Rodgers just weeks prior, pleaded guilty to similar charges, including aiding and abetting the discharge of a firearm. In November 2023, Little received a 35-year prison sentence for his involvement in the conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of Jones, Williams, and Rodgers.
