In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in June 2019, the life of 16-year-old Myiesha Cannon was tragically cut short in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. A student at Sumner High School, the African-American teenager was looking forward to her sophomore year. Known for her love of animals, she dreamed of one day working with pets.
On that fateful night, Myiesha was at a neighbor's home with some boys.
Her mother, Latrice Cannon, was unaware that her daughter had slipped out of their house to visit her boyfriend next door. The first sign of trouble came around 1:25 a.m. when the sound of gunfire pierced the quiet of the neighborhood. Latrice ran outside to the chaotic scene of a man shouting that her daughter had been shot.
Rushing into the neighbor’s residence, Latrice was met with a mother's worst nightmare. She found Myiesha on a couch, having sustained a gunshot wound to her head. Myiesha was pronounced dead at the scene. Her mother, overcome with grief and shock, expressed her disbelief, adamant that her daughter would not have handled a gun and that someone was responsible for her death.
Police were called to the 4400 block of Lexington Avenue to investigate what they deemed a 'suspicious' death, a label that underscored the uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of the shooting. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Division took charge of the case, but details remained scarce in the immediate aftermath. Despite appeals to the public for information, no suspects were immediately identified, and no arrests were made. Myiesha's death was one of a string of violent incidents that claimed the lives of several children in St. Louis that year, leaving a community in mourning and a family searching for answers and justice that have yet to come.
