Just before midnight on Sunday, September 10, 2023, gunfire erupted inside the Samuel Gompers Homes in East St. Louis. By the time responders converged on North Sixth Street, three people had been hit. A 29-year-old Black male, Deontrus A. Gilmore of East St. Louis, was mortally wounded; he was identified by the St. Clair County coroner and pronounced a short time later at 12:53 a.m.
on Monday, September 11, 2023, fixing the date of death that morning at a residence in the 400–450 block of North Sixth. The Victim, Deontus A. Gilmore's home address was listed on Johnson Lane.
The scene stretched across the interior courtyards and parking areas of the brick housing complex where investigators marked clusters of shell casings and other evidence.
Two additional victims survived, one taken by ambulance and another who drove themself to a hospital, while detectives began piecing together what led to the burst of violence that claimed the life of a 29-year-old man in a place where families were settling in for the night.
Within forty-eight hours, the investigation co-led by the Illinois State Police's Public Safety Enforcement Group and local authorities produced an arrest and felony charges. On September 12, 2023, prosecutors in St. Clair County charged 43-year-old Anthony L. Ayers of Washington Park with first-degree murder in the killing of 29-year-old Deontus A. Gilmore, along with unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and threatening a public official; a judge set bond at $2,000,000. The charging announcement tied the case to the late-night shooting inside the Samuel Gompers Homes and underscored how quickly the case moved from chaos to a named suspect.
In the days that followed, authorities urged anyone who had been near North Sixth Street around the time of the shooting, just before midnight Sunday— to come forward, a familiar plea in a city where cooperation often helps close cases. The call for tips echoed through local newscasts as the story of 29-year-old Deontus A. Gilmore, from East St. Louis, killed in a triple shooting, settled heavily on the community that knew him.
