On March 16, 2021, a violent ambush in the Old North neighborhood of Saint Louis, Missouri, claimed the life of Kortlin Keith Williams, a Black 20-year-old male. The incident occurred in the 1100 block of Montgomery Street, where Williams had arrived in a vehicle alongside his best friend, Johnnie Jones, and a third companion. Unbeknownst to the group, a meeting arranged under the guise of a narcotics transaction was actually a calculated setup designed to rob them.
The events leading to
the fatal encounter began on social media, where the perpetrators used Facebook to orchestrate a plan to steal marijuana from the victims. Antaveon Bernard Le’Vell Kent, communicating under the alias 'Trauma Traumatized,' coordinated with his co-defendant, Demorion Little, to select their targets and establish a meeting place. When Williams and his friends arrived at the designated location, the transaction immediately turned deadly. Instead of proceeding with the sale, Kent and Little opened fire into the vehicle, striking all three occupants. Williams and Jones suffered fatal gunshot wounds and died from their injuries, while the third passenger survived the attack. Authorities later recovered over 600 grams of marijuana from the victims' vehicle.
Following an investigation by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both suspects were apprehended and faced federal charges. The inquiry revealed that the shooting was the result of a conspiracy to distribute marijuana and the use of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Prosecutors established that the defendants had specifically intended to rob the victims rather than purchase the drugs, leading to the senseless loss of two young lives.
The legal proceedings resulted in significant prison terms for both assailants. Antaveon Kent pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute marijuana and discharging a firearm resulting in death, receiving a sentence of 26 years in federal prison in early 2023. His accomplice, Demorion Little, who was also implicated in a separate fatal shooting that occurred weeks prior, pleaded guilty to similar charges related to the deaths of Williams and Jones. Little was ultimately sentenced to 35 years in prison, bringing a measure of closure to a case described by officials as a heinous example of violence stemming from the drug trade.
