In the late hours of a Thursday night in Saint-Louis, Missouri, the life of 43-year-old Ernest Salisbury Jr. was tragically cut short. On March 19, 2020, Salisbury was discovered in a car parked at a QuikTrip gas station, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, becoming a grim statistic in a year that would see the city's highest homicide rate in five decades.
The male victim was not the only person targeted in the violent encounter.
A 31-year-old woman was also found at the scene with a gunshot wound to her leg. She was conscious and breathing when police arrived and was transported to a hospital for treatment. The shooting itself did not occur at the gas station where the victims were found, but rather in the Gravois Park neighborhood, a detail that emerged from the initial police report.
Despite the immediate launch of an investigation by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, there have been no public announcements regarding any arrests or the identification of any suspects in the years following the incident. The case of Ernest Salisbury Jr.'s death is one of many from a particularly violent year in St. Louis that remain unresolved. In 2020, the city saw a clearance rate of 51% for homicides, leaving numerous families, including Salisbury's, without answers or a sense of justice for their loved ones. The investigation into his death is presumed to be ongoing.
