On January 18, 2018, Rashauwn Haley, a 26-year-old Black male from St. Louis, Missouri, was fatally shot in the city's Jeff Vander Lou neighborhood. Officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call regarding a vehicle accident near the intersection of Compton Avenue and Franklin Avenue around 1:50 p.m. Upon arrival, emergency responders discovered Haley inside one of the involved vehicles, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators determined that Haley had been shot while inside his car a few blocks away from where the crash occurred. After sustaining the injuries, he attempted to drive away but lost control of the vehicle, ultimately crashing near Chambers Park. The St. Louis Homicide Division launched an investigation into the incident, which was initially reported as an accident with injuries before the gunshot wounds were discovered by EMS workers.
A significant break in the case came when police arrested a 17-year-old male suspect in connection with the homicide. The teenager was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. According to reports from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the juvenile suspect confessed to detectives that he shot Haley because he believed he had been cheated during a drug transaction. Following the charges, a judge set the teenager's bail at $1 million. Due to the suspect's age at the time of the arrest, his name was not immediately released to the public.
