In the spring of 2020, a weekend in Saint Louis was marked by a spate of violence that tragically cut short the life of 15-year-old Malik Valley. A male, he was in the 3900 block of Evans on a Saturday night in May when he was struck in the chest by a bullet. Rushed to a nearby hospital, his life could not be saved, and he was pronounced dead.
The initial hours of the investigation into the young man's death were filled with conflicting information.
An early report suggested that the shooting may have been an accident, with an acquaintance of Valley's possibly firing the weapon while playing with it. This theory, however, was soon followed by a public appeal from homicide detectives. They urged witnesses to come forward, indicating that the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting were far from clear. The St. Louis homicide division took the lead in the investigation, seeking to piece together the events of that violent Saturday night.
Despite the initial flurry of investigation and public appeals for information, the trail of publicly available information regarding any arrests or suspects in the death of Malik Valley grows cold. There have been no subsequent announcements of individuals taken into custody or charged in connection with his shooting. The case remains one of many unsolved homicides that have left families and communities searching for answers and justice. His death was part of a particularly violent weekend in the city, which saw multiple other shootings and fatalities, compounding the sense of loss and urgency for solutions to the city's gun violence.
