On the evening of April 30, 2024, 31-year-old male DeMarko Henderson was fatally shot inside a residence in the 5100 block of Lexington Avenue in the Kingsway West neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. The incident occurred after DeMarko returned to the home he shared with his father, bringing his 11-year-old daughter with him. According to investigators and court testimony, their arrival accidentally woke his father, 49-year-old Tekeia Henderson, who had been sleeping in a bedroom.
The elder Henderson became agitated and confronted the child as she was gathering clothes from a closet, leading DeMarko to intervene to protect his daughter.
The verbal dispute between the father and son quickly escalated into a physical altercation. A witness, Tekeia Henderson’s girlfriend, testified that she attempted to break up the fight. As DeMarko prepared to leave the premises with his daughter, his father produced a firearm and shot him twice at close range, striking him in the head and chest. The 11-year-old girl, who witnessed the shooting, fled to a neighbor's house to report that her grandfather had killed her father. When police arrived at the scene, they found DeMarko deceased.
Law enforcement officers arrested Tekeia Henderson outside the apartment shortly after the shooting. Initially, he claimed to detectives that the shooting was accidental and occurred while he and his son were struggling over the weapon. However, forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts contradicted his version of events. His girlfriend reported hearing him threaten to shoot his son just moments before the gunfire, and his granddaughter provided crucial testimony regarding the intentional nature of the act. Prosecutors noted that Tekeia had a history of violence against his son, having shot him in the leg two years prior, though no charges were filed in that earlier incident.
Following a trial in June 2025, a St. Louis jury found Tekeia Henderson guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. During the sentencing hearing on July 18, 2025, the court imposed a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge. Additionally, the judge sentenced him to a consecutive 10-year prison term for the armed criminal action conviction. In statements to the court, DeMarko’s family described him as a loving father and creative professional who worked as a photographer and videographer.
