On July 13, 2015, tragedy struck the Wells Goodfellow neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, when 23-year-old African American resident Rashad Lamar Farmer was fatally shot in broad daylight. The incident occurred during a hot summer afternoon near the intersection of Goodfellow Boulevard and Lotus Avenue. Rashad had accompanied his pregnant girlfriend to her grandmother’s home and was waiting in the car while she went inside. Moments later, gunshots rang out, shattering the quiet of the residential street.
His girlfriend, hearing the gunfire from inside the house, rushed out to find Rashad had been struck by a bullet. Despite the immediate alarm, he died at the scene before he could be transported to a hospital. Family members, including his mother Renee, arrived shortly after to a devastating scene cordoned off by police tape. The brazen nature of the shooting, which happened in the middle of the day, left the community shaken and his loved ones grappling with sudden, violent loss just months before the birth of his son, Rashad Jr.
Investigators from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department arrived to process the evidence, but the case quickly went cold. Detectives struggled to identify a suspect or a clear motive for the killing. In the years following the murder, Rashad’s family publicly expressed their belief that he was the victim of mistaken identity, caught in the crosshairs of violence intended for someone else. Authorities noted that the Wells Goodfellow neighborhood had experienced a high volume of homicides that year, yet witnesses to this specific crime were scarce or unwilling to come forward.
Despite the involvement of community leaders and a reward fund established to encourage tips, no arrests have been made in connection with Rashad’s death. The case remains open and unsolved, with police unable to name any primary suspects or bring charges against any individuals. For nearly a decade, his mother has continued to hold vigils and release balloons at the site of the shooting, maintaining a public plea for anyone with information to contact CrimeStoppers and help bring closure to a family still waiting for justice.
