In the early hours of January 29, 2023, a planned marijuana purchase at a gas station in Cool Valley, Missouri, turned deadly for Devon Williams. The 18-year-old Black man had gone to the BP station on South Florissant Road around 3 a.m. to buy about $20 worth of marijuana. Inside the station, a man named Bryant Pirtle offered him the drug and directed him to a Honda Accord waiting outside.
Williams approached the car with his money, but after a brief discussion, he turned and began to walk away. At that point, Pirtle and another man, Christopher Hall, who had been in the driver's seat, both got out of the car and opened fire on Williams. As the two men fled the scene, Hall ran over Williams with the vehicle. Williams was rushed to a hospital, but he did not survive his injuries.
The investigation into the murder was a joint effort by the FBI, the St. Louis County Police Department, and the Normandy Police Department. Investigators quickly zeroed in on Bryant "BJ" Pirtle, then 20, after tracking his iPhone data, which placed him at the gas station during the shooting and later where the Honda Accord was found abandoned. Surveillance video from the gas station also showed Pirtle with a distinctive gray Lacoste backpack that was later recovered from him. The second suspect was identified as Christopher "Face" Hall.
On March 22, 2023, police arrested Pirtle after he fled from them in a stolen car at the very same gas station where Williams had been killed. A search of the vehicle uncovered $4,500 in cash, about a pound of marijuana, digital scales, baggies, and two AR-15-style rifles, one of which had been reported stolen. Pirtle was also a suspect in a series of car break-ins in another part of St. Louis. More than a year later, in July 2024, the Beretta handgun used by Hall in the shooting was recovered during an unrelated police stop.
Both Pirtle and Hall were indicted on federal charges in connection with the killing. Prosecutors initially announced they might seek the death penalty in the case, but that option was later taken off the table. According to court documents, Hall later bragged about running Williams over in text messages he sent after the murder.
The case was resolved in October 2026. On October 15, Bryant Pirtle, then 23, and Christopher Hall, 25, both pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime resulting in death. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Sentencing for both men was scheduled for the following January.
