A 15-year-old girl and her boyfriend are accused of killing five members of her family and wounding two others in a shocking series of shootings that her father says followed a bitter dispute over her being homeschooled.
The teenager, who has not been publicly identified because she has been arrested but not formally charged, allegedly carried out attacks at multiple locations in East St. Louis, Illinois, on Sunday.
Police identified her boyfriend as 16-year-old Ja’ymeir Davis. He was charged Tuesday with five counts of murder.
Authorities said the victims were the girl’s cousin, Devin May, 24; her step-siblings, Quentin Thompson, 21, and Shania Thompson, 25; her grandmother, Patricia May, 74; and her aunt, Cherie May, 49.
The girl’s father, Marcus May, said he has been left shattered by the killings and described what he believes were warning signs in the days and months before the violence.
May said he received a call from the girl’s mother five days before the shootings, warning him that their daughter had run away from home and taken her gun, according to the St Louis Post Dispatch.
May, who shares custody of the teenager, said she had been getting into repeated trouble at school in the months before the tragedy. He said those issues led him and her mother to remove her from school and begin homeschooling her.
That decision, he said, angered his daughter, who lived with her mother. He also claimed she had run away several times before and had previously 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.
Devin May, 24, was among the deceased following a horrific massacre across the town of East St. Louis, Illinois on Sunday, allegedly at the hands of his cousin, 15, and her boyfriend, 16. He is pictured with his wife before the birth of their first child
Patricia May, 74, was allegedly killed by her granddaughter during the shooting spree
Police said the shootings took place at three locations across East St. Louis, Illinois on Sunday
May said his daughter’s troubling behavior escalated until she stole the gun from her mother days before the shooting.
On the day of the bloodbath, he said the girl’s grandmother Patricia, who was killed 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 killed 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.
The girl’s father Marcus May (above) said he has been left devastated by the tragedy, as he revealed several red flags before the mass shooting
Shania Thompson, 25, was found dead in a car behind an abandoned property
Cherie May, 49, was allegedly killed by her niece during the tragedy
Quentin, the teenage girl’s step-brother, was found dead on the side of Interstate 64
Two other people, who have not been publicly identified, were also shot during the violent episode, and sustained serious injuries but 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.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Illinois State Police for updates on their case.
May said the shootings have left him heartbroken, saying: ‘I lost my whole family in one fell swoop.’
He told KSDK that he is in disbelief that his own daughter would allegedly kill her own family members, and he ‘can’t show her no sympathy.’
Devin had welcomed a baby daughter just a year before the tragedy, with his wife Chelsey Gatlin saying in a touching tribute he ‘was a great father.’
‘A great person and a great man,’ she said.
Devin had welcomed a baby daughter just a year before the tragedy
Miranda May, Devin’s sister and daughter of Cherie, added: ‘He loved his family. I really don’t have no words to say. I can’t believe this. They were wonderful people with good hearts.’
She said the loss of Patricia, 74, was devastating, as she continued: ‘My granny is so loved. It just hurts to see that she was gone like this. It hurts so bad.’
In a GoFundMe set up to help the surviving family members, the deceased’s loved ones said they have been left ‘feeling broken and alone, not knowing where to turn.’
‘The media has called this tragedy a massacre, and the pain is compounded by the circumstances—two young family members were responsible for these devastating murders,’ the fundraiser alleged.
