On the evening of January 12, 2021, 51-year-old Ronald Ross, a male resident of Granite City, Illinois, was found with fatal gunshot wounds in the parking lot of a business located in the 200 block of Chambers Road in Riverview, a municipality in St. Louis County, Missouri. Despite being rushed to a local hospital, Ross succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. The Riverview Police Department initially responded to the call and subsequently requested the assistance of the St.
Louis County Police Department's Bureau of Crimes Against Persons to lead the homicide investigation.
Investigators determined that the shooting stemmed from a drug transaction that had been arranged between Ross and another man. An argument erupted during the course of this deal, which tragically escalated into the fatal shooting of Ross. In the days following the incident, authorities released images of a person of interest and a vehicle, described as a newer model GMC Terrain, that were connected to the crime.
By September 2021, police had identified a suspect in the case, charging 40-year-old Rodney Toney with second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance for his involvement in the events that led to Ronald Ross's death. Toney was also a suspect in the July 2021 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Kimmy Goodson, outside a beauty salon in St. Louis County. At the time of Ross's murder, Toney was reportedly on parole for a prior robbery conviction and was wearing a GPS monitor.
Despite the charges filed against him, Rodney Toney was not immediately apprehended. Authorities believed he may have fled to the Memphis, Tennessee, area and continued to search for him. As of the latest available reports, Toney remained at large, and the case against him for the death of Ronald Ross was pending his capture.
