On July 4, 2016, a violent incident unfolded in the North City area of St. Louis, Missouri, disrupting the Independence Day holiday with a triple shooting. The attack occurred around 11:55 a.m. in the 4200 block of West Page Boulevard. Surveillance footage from the scene captured a dark-colored Dodge Charger—believed to be a 2007 or 2008 model with tinted windows and chrome wheels—pulling up to a curb near a business.
Two gunmen exited the vehicle armed with rifles and opened fire, unleashing a barrage of over 60 rounds into the street in broad daylight.
One of the victims struck by the gunfire was Jamie Conner, a 21-year-old male. Conner was found by authorities on Pendleton Avenue suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was killed alongside another man, 31-year-old Samuel Jackson, who also sustained fatal injuries during the ambush. A third victim, a 20-year-old man found outside a nearby business, survived the attack but was transported to a hospital in critical condition. A fourth individual was observed fleeing the area, though it remained unclear if they had been injured.
For over two years, homicide detectives investigated the case, relying partly on the surveillance video released to the public which showed the suspects and their vehicle. The initial police description identified the shooters as two males, one estimated to be around 30 years old and the other between 20 and 30. The breakthrough in the case came in December 2018, when authorities in McCracken County, Kentucky, arrested a suspect named Devion Chester on unrelated impaired driving charges.
Following his apprehension in Kentucky, Chester, also known by the alias 'D-Blood,' was identified as a suspect in the 2016 St. Louis double homicide. One of the surviving victims had reportedly recognized him as one of the shooters. Prosecutors subsequently charged Chester with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault, and three counts of armed criminal action. He was ordered held without bond pending extradition to Missouri to face the charges related to the deaths of Conner and Jackson.
