A teenager has been accused of k!lling five members of her family and injuring two more with the help of her 16-year-old boyfriend.
The couple, aged 15 and 16, who have not been named publicly because they have been arrested but not formally charged, allegedly went on the rampage across several locations in East St Louis, Illinois, on Sunday, July 12.
Authorities identified the victims as the girl’s cousin, 24-year-old Devin May; her step-siblings, 21-year-old Quentin Thompson and 25-year-old Shania Thompson; her 74-year-old grandmother, Patricia May; and her 49-year-old aunt, Cherie May.
The girl’s father, Marcus May, said he has been left devastated by the tragedy, as he openned up about the mass shooting.
He claimed he received a call from his child’s mother five days before the sho0ting warning that she had run away from home and stolen her gun, reports the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
May, who shares custody of his daughter, said she had been repeatedly getting in trouble in school in the months leading up to the sho0ting, leading him and her mother to pull her out of school and homeschool her.
He said the move infuriated his daughter, who lived with her mother, and she had previously run away from home several times and stolen her mother’s credit card.
May added that his ex-partner warned him that their daughter was in a disturbing group chat with her boyfriend and other teens where they talked about killing her family members, but he did not take the threat seriously at the time.
May said his daughter’s troubling behavior escalated until she stole the gun from her mother days before the sho0ting.
On the day of the bloodbath, he said the girl’s grandmother Patricia, who was k!lled in the shooting spree, had called her granddaughter begging her to come home and insisted she could ‘deal with’ her behavior.
May meanwhile said he contacted the boyfriend’s parents to tell them to get their son away from his daughter.
The girl’s mother then reported her missing and warned police that the gun was stolen, but days passed without them hearing from her.
On Sunday morning, May said he woke up to numerous missed calls and messages, and he knew something had gone terribly wrong.
Police said the victims were k!lled in several locations across East St. Louis, with Shania Thompson found in a car behind an abandoned property near May’s home.
Her brother Quentin was found nearby on the other side of Interstate 64.
The other three victims were all discovered at the Samuel Gompers apartment complex.
Two other people, who have not been publicly identified, were also shot during the shooting but sustained serious injuries and survived.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said the events were a ‘targeted mass shooting’ and the teenagers have been arrested; however they have not been formally charged.
See photos of the victims below.
