African American teenager Jason 'JJ' Eberhart Jr. was a promising sixteen-year-old athlete whose life was tragically cut short in the summer of 2019. On the early morning of Sunday, August 18, 2019, St. Louis police officers responded to a call at approximately 2:15 a.m. in the Carr Square neighborhood of North St. Louis. Upon arriving at the 1300 block of Hogan Street, authorities discovered Eberhart in a parking lot, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Despite the emergency response, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the same incident, an eighteen-year-old male was also struck by gunfire, sustaining a wound to the buttocks. He was transported to a local hospital where he was listed in stable condition. Homicide detectives immediately began investigating the shooting, which added Eberhart to a growing list of young victims of gun violence in the city that summer. Family members, including his cousin Charles Shelton, later expressed their devastation, noting that Eberhart was in the 'wrong place at the wrong time.'
Eberhart came from a family deeply rooted in football and had shown great potential on the field. He was in the process of transferring to Soldan High School for his junior year, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Antonio Phillips, who played for Ball State University, and his father, Jason Eberhart Sr., a former defensive lineman for the University of Illinois. His family described him as a gifted athlete who excelled whenever he touched a football, with plans to use the sport as a pathway to his future.
Despite the initial investigation and pleas from the community for information, no suspects were immediately apprehended in connection with Jason Eberhart Jr.'s murder. In the months following the shooting, the case was highlighted as part of a group of unsolved killings of children in St. Louis during that period. As of the latest available updates, no arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed, leaving the case unsolved.
