On the morning of May 25, 2017, police in St. Louis, Missouri, were dispatched to the Baden neighborhood following reports of a shooting. Officers arrived at the 1100 block of Canaan Avenue around 8:48 a.m., where they discovered a chaotic scene in an alleyway. Keiva Jones, a 29-year-old female, was found unresponsive in a vacant lot with a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders pronounced her dead at the scene.
Near her, a 52-year-old man, identified in court records as Corvell Wraggs, was found suffering from critical injuries after also being shot in the head. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he survived the attack.
The investigation revealed that the shooting was witnessed by a utility worker who had been in the alley to fix a streetlight. The worker told authorities that a gunman approached, shot the two victims, and then robbed him of his cell phone before fleeing the scene in a blue and silver 1990 Chevrolet Silverado. Detectives soon connected this incident to another fatal shooting that had occurred just minutes earlier at a gas station on the 3600 block of Dunn Road. In that separate attack, a 28-year-old man named Andre Jones was shot and killed while at the pumps.
Authorities identified the suspect as 36-year-old Casey Lowery, a resident of the same neighborhood who lived on a street adjacent to the Canaan Avenue crime scene. A multi-state search ensued, tracking the suspect's vehicle as he fled south. Late that same evening, law enforcement in Selmer, Tennessee, approximately 300 miles away, apprehended Lowery. He was discovered walking naked along a road and was taken into custody without further violence.
Casey Lowery was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and multiple counts of armed criminal action in connection with the St. Louis shootings. During his trial in September 2022, prosecutors presented evidence including witness testimony from the surviving victim and the utility worker, as well as the recovery of the stolen cell phone. A jury ultimately convicted Lowery of the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder for the death of Keiva Jones, as well as first-degree assault for the shooting of the surviving victim and two counts of armed criminal action.
