Kevin Brown, 20, male, of St. Louis, was killed after a fight at a Save-A-Lot in the Riverview neighborhood erupted into gunfire on the night of December 19, 2016. Police said the confrontation began inside the grocery store and spilled into the parking lot, where Brown was shot multiple times. As people scattered and the chaos pushed outward into the lot, Brown tried to get away, but he collapsed and died outside the store before he could escape.
In the days that followed, investigators focused on Lamarkis Cowan as the alleged shooter. Cowan turned himself in, and prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was held on a $1 million cash-only bond, as the case shifted from a violent public scene to the slower machinery of court hearings, filings, and the long wait for trial.
Years later, with a first-degree murder trial set to begin, the case ended not with a jury verdict but with a negotiated resolution. Cowan pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a 14-year prison term, a deal that closed the prosecution without forcing Brown’s family and witnesses to relive the shooting from the stand. Cowan’s attorney indicated Cowan would have argued self-defense had the case gone to trial, but the plea ended the case in the shadow of that parking-lot killing.
