On the morning of December 4, 2019, a domestic dispute unfolded at a residence in the 9800 block of Dennis Drive in Saint Louis, Missouri, involving 20-year-old female Johanna Kimple. She became engaged in a physical altercation with her boyfriend inside the home. As the argument intensified, she contacted her brother and asked him to come to the house to assist her.
Her brother arrived at the scene accompanied by a 19-year-old acquaintance named Javion Smith.
Smith brought an AR-15 rifle with him to the location. Towards the end of the conflict, Smith raised the rifle and fired a shot intended for the boyfriend. However, Johanna was standing between the shooter and her partner at that critical moment. The bullet struck her, traveling through her body before grazing her boyfriend's thigh.
Police officers responded to the shooting report at approximately 7:30 a.m. Emergency responders rushed the wounded mother of a five-month-old daughter to a nearby hospital, but she did not survive the injuries and was pronounced dead. The boyfriend survived the incident with the minor injury to his leg.
Following the investigation by the St. Louis County Police Department, Javion Smith was arrested and taken into custody. Prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder and armed criminal action for his role in the death. Authorities stated that while his intent was to shoot the boyfriend, his actions resulted in the loss of Johanna's life. Smith was held on a $500,000 bond.
In a strange subsequent development, the same home on Dennis Drive was the site of a suspicious fire just one day after the shooting. A man inside the home was critically injured in the blaze and later died from his injuries. While the fire was determined to be arson, detectives stated they found no evidence connecting the fire to the homicide that had occurred twenty-four hours earlier.
