Alleged Serial Killer Perez Reed Used Same Gun, Wore Same Shoes to Gun Down 6 People, Police Say

A 25-year-old suspected serial killer has been charged with two of six murders he’s allegedly related to in St. Louis and Kansas Metropolis, in line with native police.

Perez Reed, whose picture reveals he sports activities a crescent tattoo between his eyes, was stopped by authorities as he acquired off a bus Friday evening after police tied his cellphone picked up at against the law scene to an Amtrak ticket he bought.

St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK reports the victims of the murders and random non-fatal shootings had been largely girls concerned within the intercourse business and individuals who could have been a part of the cities’ transgender group. The assaults came about between September and late October and embrace one taking pictures within the metropolis of St. Louis, two murders in St. Louis County, and two murders in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas—all dedicated with the identical .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, police say. The primary homicide sufferer was a 16-year-old lady who was killed on Sept. 13, just a few days after she was reported as a runaway.

To this point, Reed has been charged with two counts of first-degree homicide, one rely of first-degree assault, and three counts of armed prison motion, in line with St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional Wesley Bell’s workplace as reported in native media. Reed has additionally been charged with one federal rely of transporting a firearm throughout a state line with the intent to commit a felony.

The killings in Kansas Metropolis came about in a high-rise house complicated in two separate models. Police say Reed wore the identical footwear to each murders after which stored them on at additional crime scenes, which led police to look native cellphone networks to search for a cellphone connection. After they reportedly discovered his cellphone quantity had been utilized in each places, they had been capable of hint the quantity to an Amtrak ticket he bought to return dwelling from St. Louis to Kansas Metropolis. Police adopted him when he acquired off the prepare and onto a bus in Independence, Missouri, the place he was arrested.

He was sporting the footwear tied to a number of crime scenes and had the gun utilized in all of the alleged murders and shootings on him, officers say.

A lot of the alleged non-fatal taking pictures victims had been girls who had been recognized intercourse employees. At the least two of the surviving taking pictures victims had been members of the trans group, police say. At the least one non-fatal taking pictures sufferer was a person who match neither class and was struck at random whereas ready at a bus cease. Police haven’t introduced a motive however say they don’t imagine any of the victims knew one another or Reed, who didn’t have a considerable prison file however who had been arrested for petty crimes up to now.

The oldest recognized sufferer is a 49-year-old lady who was shot on the street and later died in a hospital on Sept. 16. Three days later, a 24-year-old man was discovered lifeless in a vacant lot. Ten days later, on Sept. 26, police had been alerted to an space in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police laptop program ShotSpotter, which tracks gunshots in high-violence areas, pinged authorities. There, a 40-year previous man was discovered lifeless on the street.

On Nov. 1, police discovered the our bodies of a 35-year-old man and 25-year-old lady within the high-rise house that led them to interrupt the case. Police discovered one other deceased individual within the complicated, however say they later attributed that loss of life to pure causes. On Sunday evening, residents of the house complicated released balloons to honor the dead simply as prices had been filed in opposition to Reed.

Reed, whose twenty sixth birthday is Wednesday, is being held on cash-only bond of $2 million. Police are anticipated to provide a press convention Monday in St. Louis.