Bryant Kieth Ballard

Bryant Ballard, 46, was found in the dark hours of Saturday, August 3, 2013, after gunfire tore through a quiet stretch of Walnut Park West in north St. Louis. It was around 2:30 a.m. when police were called to the 5600 block of East Alice Avenue, where they came upon him outside a home, down and badly wounded.

The first moments at the scene were the kind that move fast and still feel slow: officers closing in, the quick assessment, the urgency that follows when someone is hurt beyond wh ...