In the late hours of a Sunday over Labor Day weekend, the life of 21-year-old Eric Baker, a Black male from St. Louis, was tragically cut short. On August 31, 2025, at approximately 11:35 p.m., the sound of gunfire pierced the night in the 2100 block of Fairhaven Drive in Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis. Officers were dispatched to the scene after a ShotSpotter activation and discovered shell casings littering the ground in front of a residence.
Shortly after, a local hospital notified
authorities that a man, later identified as Eric Baker, had been brought to their emergency department with gunshot wounds. Despite the efforts of medical staff, Baker succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. The investigation into the shooting was immediately taken over by the St. Louis County Police Department's Bureau of Crimes Against Persons.
The investigation revealed that Baker had been sitting inside a vehicle on Fairhaven Drive when a man standing outside the car opened fire, striking him twice. Tragically, an infant was also inside the car at the time of the shooting, narrowly avoiding the path of the bullets. Witnesses at the scene provided crucial information to the police, indicating that the suspect had expressed a desire to kill Baker.
This information led investigators to identify 18-year-old Deandre Coleman Jr., a resident of Fairhaven Drive, as the primary suspect. Coleman was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Following the charges, he was held on a $1.5 million cash-only bond.
