On a summer afternoon in St. Louis, tragedy struck an 18-year-old male named Lamantris Sample. The date was July 4, 2022, when Sample was at a Mobil gas station located at the intersection of Kingshighway Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue in the Kingsway East neighborhood. As he walked across the parking lot around 3:30 p.m., a suspect emerged from a car and opened fire. Sample began to run but was struck by a bullet in the back.
First responders rushed him to a local hospital, but his injury proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The shooting, captured on surveillance video, launched a homicide investigation. During the commission of the crime, the shooter dropped a hat as he fled the scene. This piece of evidence would prove to be crucial for detectives. The hat was collected and sent for DNA testing, a process that would eventually lead to a significant breakthrough in the case. For a time, the investigation continued without a named suspect, leaving the motive behind the violent act unclear.
A break in the case came when the DNA from the hat was matched to an individual named Roosevelt Livingston. At the time the charges were filed, Livingston was 20 years old and already incarcerated, serving a three-year sentence for first-degree robbery. Investigators questioned him, and during the interview, he identified himself in a photograph taken shortly before the fatal shooting. In the picture, he was wearing the same clothing as the gunman seen in the gas station's surveillance footage.
Based on the strength of the DNA match and the supporting evidence from the surveillance video and photograph, prosecutors charged Roosevelt Livingston with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. A court ordered him to be held without bond pending further legal proceedings.
