A 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old boyfriend are accused of killing five members of her family and wounding two others in a shooting spree across multiple locations in East St. Louis on Sunday, July 12, authorities said.
The couple, who have not been publicly named because they have been arrested but not formally charged, allegedly carried out what Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly described as a "targeted mass shooting."
Authorities identified the five people killed 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.
Two other people, who have not been identified, were shot and seriously injured but survived.
The girl's father, Marcus May, said he was devastated by the tragedy and described a troubling chain of events in the days leading up to it.
He said the girl's mother called him five days before the shooting to warn that their daughter had run away from home and stolen her gun.
May, who shares custody of his daughter, said she had been repeatedly getting into trouble at school in the months before the shooting, prompting him and her mother to pull her out and begin homeschooling her, a decision he said "infuriated" her.
He said she had run away from home several times before and had also stolen her mother's credit card.
He said his ex-partner had also warned him that their daughter was part of a disturbing group chat with her boyfriend and other teens in which they discussed killing her family members, but he admitted he did not take the threat seriously at the time.
On the day of the shooting, May said the girl's grandmother, Patricia, called her granddaughter and begged her to come home, insisting she could "deal with" her behaviour.
May said he had separately contacted the boyfriend's parents, urging them to keep their son away from his daughter.
The girl's mother reported her missing and told police the gun had been stolen, but days passed with no word from her.
On Sunday morning, May said he woke to numerous missed calls and messages and immediately sensed something had gone terribly wrong.
Police said the victims were found across several locations in East St. Louis.
Shania Thompson was discovered in a car behind an abandoned property near May's home, while her brother Quentin was found nearby on the other side of Interstate 64.
The remaining three victims were found at the Samuel Gompers apartment complex.
Both teenagers have been arrested but have not yet been formally charged.
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