On the night of October 28, 2015, violence erupted in the Bevo Mill neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, claiming the lives of two young men. James Cobb Jr., a 23-year-old male, was sitting in a parked vehicle with his friend, 22-year-old Haris Hajdarevic, in the 4400 block of Taft Avenue. What began as a quiet evening outside Cobb's childhood home turned tragic when the pair was ambushed.
Gunfire shattered the silence of the residential street, and when first responders arrived at the scene, they found both Cobb and Hajdarevic suffering from fatal gunshot wounds. Despite the efforts of emergency personnel, both men were pronounced dead at the scene, leaving their families and the community to grapple with the sudden double homicide.
Investigators quickly pieced together a motive rooted in personal conflict. Detectives learned that Cobb had been involved in an ongoing dispute with a 19-year-old man named Rey Hernandez. The animosity stemmed from a romantic rivalry, as Hernandez was dating the mother of Cobb’s young son at the time. Authorities discovered that the tension between the two men had escalated in the days leading up to the shooting, with heated exchanges and threats made over social media platforms. Police determined that Hernandez had targeted Cobb, lying in wait before launching the fatal attack that also claimed the life of Hajdarevic, who was simply present in the vehicle.
Law enforcement moved swiftly to apprehend the suspect. Two days after the shooting, on October 30, 2015, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged Rey Hernandez with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action. Hernandez was taken into custody and held without bond as the legal process unfolded. During the subsequent trial in April 2018, prosecutors argued that the killings were premeditated, characterizing the incident as an execution-style ambush. Hernandez claimed he acted in self-defense, asserting he feared for his life, but the jury ultimately rejected his defense. He was found guilty on all counts and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, ensuring he would spend the remainder of his life behind bars for the deaths of Cobb and Hajdarevic.
