In an unfortunate turn of events stemming from a street robbery, 19-year-old Dominick Chambly, a Black male, lost his life on January 24, 2016, in St. Louis, Missouri. The incident unfolded when Chambly was driving a car with Ronald Houston Jr. and two other men as passengers. They spotted a man with a hoverboard near the intersection of Clarendon and Delmar, at which point Houston announced his intention to steal it.
Houston, who was 18 at the time, reportedly put on a ski mask, exited
the vehicle with a handgun, and robbed the man of his hoverboard. As Houston fled back to the car, the robbery victim, who was also armed, opened fire on the vehicle as it drove away. In the ensuing gunfire, Chambly was struck in the neck and flank. The car he was driving then crashed into a concrete wall.
When police arrived at the scene of the crash, they found Chambly and Houston inside the vehicle with gunshot wounds. Chambly was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Houston sustained a gunshot wound to his back and was in stable condition. Another passenger in the car was also wounded but survived.
Following the incident, Ronald Houston Jr. was charged with first-degree robbery, two counts of armed criminal action, and second-degree murder in connection with Dominick Chambly's death. Under Missouri law, a person can be charged with murder if someone dies during the commission of a felony or the immediate flight from it, even if the person charged did not directly cause the death. At the time of the incident, Houston was on probation for a prior conviction of unlawful use of a weapon. The identity of the robbery victim who fired the fatal shots was not publicly disclosed, and no reports indicated that he faced any charges.
