On the morning of September 14, 2016, residents and passersby in the Central West End neighborhood of Saint Louis, Missouri, noticed a red Laclede Cab parked near the intersection of Laclede Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard. For hours, the vehicle sat idling with a man inside who appeared to be sleeping or unconscious. It was not until approximately 10:30 a.m. that someone approached the vehicle and realized the driver was unresponsive, prompting a call to emergency services.
Upon arrival, authorities discovered the body of 38-year-old Timothy Grice slumped over in the driver's seat. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Homicide detectives launched an investigation and determined that the shooting had likely occurred in the early morning hours, estimated between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Police surmised that the vehicle did not initially draw suspicion because cab drivers frequently parked in that specific area while waiting for fares. Further inquiry revealed that the motive behind the violence was an attempted robbery. The investigation eventually led law enforcement to identify multiple young men involved in the crime. In December 2016, prosecutors issued charges against two primary suspects, Shakur Ellis and Jerry Reese, who were teenagers at the time of the incident.
The legal proceedings continued for nearly two years as the details of the night were reconstructed. Authorities established that Ellis and Reese, along with others, had confronted Grice with the intention of robbing him. During the encounter, the situation escalated, resulting in Grice being shot in the neck and head. In November 2018, the cases against the two men reached their conclusions in court. Shakur Ellis, who had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that involved testifying against his co-defendant, was sentenced to ten years in prison for second-degree murder. Around the same time, Jerry Reese received a twenty-five-year prison sentence for five felony charges, including second-degree murder. A third individual, Savion Smith, was also implicated in related criminal activity regarding receiving stolen property and received a fifteen-year sentence.
