MO - Woman with Shotgun Arrested at KMOX, Suspected of Killing Two Kids

krimekat

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http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/08/31/woman-with-shotgun-arrested-in-front-of-kmox-building/

A terrifying night Wednesday, with a woman suspected of killing two of her kids, striking three pedestrians with her car and staking out with a shotgun in front of the KMOX building.

The evening began with a 911 call to East St. Louis police from a neighbor, who’d discovered the bodies of two young children, a boy and girl, in an apartment in the 3000 block of Lincoln Avenue.

“There was nobody here when we got here, except for the children, so we don’t know what occurred inside that apartment,” said Police Captain Bobby Cole.

He added that it was a tough scene for officers to see.
 
The drama didn’t end there.

“I saw her get out of her vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the street, she gets out and sits right in the front of this building with a shotgun, and she starts loading it,” explained a security guard at One Memorial Drive, home to both KMOX Radio and KMOV-TV.

KMOV Channel 4 photographer Stan Kostecki said he turned the corner and saw her sitting in front of the building’s large picture windows. “I put my gear in my car and I turned around and I asked her, ‘can I help you?”

The woman, covered in blood, sat silently on the sidewalk with her loaded shotgun across her lap.

She offered no resistance as police surrounded her.

“She was waiting for them to come and take her away,” Christina Ceriotti said. “They pulled out their guns, she handed over her shotgun and then they cuffed her.”

Investigators with East St. Louis and Illinois State Police said they were headed to St. Louis to talk with her about the grisly double-murder she’s suspected of committing .


from the above article . . . going to search for what is going on over the Mississippi River. I listen to KMOX 1120 AM everyday all day & this has been the local news story for them since it broke!
 
Here we go . . . weird KMOV (where the eye witness works) does not have ANY updates. But one of their competitors does:

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/274489/3/Police-to-present-case-of-murdered-children-to-prosecutors

A 25-year-old woman accused of murdering two young children in East St. Louis, Illinois was taken into custody Wednesday evening after striking three pedestrians at Memorial Drive and Market Street.

Police sources say two very young children, one boy, and one girl, ages 4 and 5, were found shot to death inside of an apartment in the 3000 block of Lincoln Avenue in East St. Louis.

Early Thursday morning, East St. Louis Police told NewsChannel 5 they anticipate presenting their case to the St. Clair County States Attorney by this afternoon.

Authorities believe the woman shot the children, and then headed across the Mississippi River into downtown St. Louis.
 
http://www.bnd.com/2011/08/31/1842002/police-on-scene-of-shootings-possibly.html

Police said two small children were fatally shot Wednesday evening in an apartment in East St. Louis.

Moments later, a woman with blood on her body and clothes was apprehended by St. Louis police outside KMOV-TV at 1 Memorial Drive in downtown St. Louis. Police say the woman, who is believed to be the mother of the children, was taken into custody outside the television station. She was identified as a 25-year-old woman in police dispatch logs.


wow - all the news outlets in & around StL are piecing it together . . . well, at least I am for them! :floorlaugh:

THANK YOU WS for showing me how to do it - you ROCK!
 
Police received a call about the shooting at 6:03 p.m. Wednesday, Police Chief Ranadore Foggs said.

Police said the victims were a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy. Police said three children lived at the apartment, and that the victims' 8-year-old brother was taken into protective custody. Police said the older boy was inside the apartment when the shootings occurred but ran out.

A relative at the scene and neighbors confirmed that the woman apprehended in St. Louis was the children's mother.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/08/31/1842002/police-on-scene-of-shootings-possibly.html#ixzz1WjAHfiFU

reading some comments, she has recently started taking Rx for depression.
 
From the BND article:

A co-worker of the woman in custody said the suspect recently lost her job. A woman who said she was the mother's cousin said that the mother recently began taking medications that could have contributed to the shootings.

Sounds as though the mother was under stress and had recently been prescribed new medications. Could be she had an existing problem with mental illness and had a reaction to the medication. Her behavior was so bizarre, its difficult to expl ain otherwise.
 
So nobody heard the shots at the apartment? I can't believe everyday how there is just a domino effect of killing children. It breaks my heart.
 
Some good coverage from the Post Dispatch. The mother's name is Yokeia Smith. Child service workers had dealings with the family in the past. Sad situation, sounds more like the mom had a mental health problem.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/article_7c35b748-9f5d-5b07-ba32-5db487e5043d.html

ETA: And so sad for the pedestrians who she struck with her car in downtown St. Louis. A man, age 42 and his son, age 3, on vacation from IA, were hit. They were taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries.
 
So nobody heard the shots at the apartment? I can't believe everyday how there is just a domino effect of killing children. It breaks my heart.

residents reported gunfire in an apartment in East St. Louis, Illinois...
Police arrived to find a boy and a girl, ages 4 and 5, shot to death in the apartment. Another child, age 8, was unharmed. But their mother was nowhere to be found.

She found 40 minutes later in downtown St. Louis.


http://www.truecrimereport.com/2011/09/yokeia_smith_kills_her_two_kid.php
 
Slayings of East St. Louis children stun neighbors

Illinois officials say Smith was investigated twice between December 2007 and March of this year on allegations of child neglect, the Associated Press reported. But spokesman Kendall Marlowe of Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services said there were no reports involving physical abuse. He declined to detail the claims, citing privacy laws.

Smith never lost custody of her children, Marlowe said. Police briefly took protective custody once, but DCFS did not take that matter to court because Smith's relatives took steps to adequately ensure the children's well-being, Marlowe said.

The state agency also offered the woman aid, but she refused it, Marlowe said.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_3a4804a5-1a19-5c7f-aebe-61910256039a.html

Don't know if this has been posted yet . . .
 
Krimekat... have you heard anything regarding her possibly being wanted in connection to another murder in ESL? The news (kmov & fox, don't watch ksdk) reported that the night she killed the children, but I haven't seen anything about it since then. She's been charged in both the deaths of her children, and in the assault on the tourists she hit with her car.

http://www.kmov.com/news/crime/Woma...un-currently-being-held-in-St-Louis-jail.html
 
Krimekat... have you heard anything regarding her possibly being wanted in connection to another murder in ESL? The news (kmov & fox, don't watch ksdk) reported that the night she killed the children, but I haven't seen anything about it since then. She's been charged in both the deaths of her children, and in the assault on the tourists she hit with her car.

http://www.kmov.com/news/crime/Woma...un-currently-being-held-in-St-Louis-jail.html

I will check to see what other murders happened over there that night . . . right now I am seeing just the children, but you never know! "Weird wild stuff" (in my best Dana Carvey voice) happens over there all the time!

I listen to KMOX all day (or KDHX). . . been TV-free since 1 Jul & loving it!!!
 
RIP Little Ones

1hP84A.St.98.jpg


Yokela Smith, 4, and LeVada Brown, 5, were killed by a series of shotgun blasts inside their apartment Wednesday night. Their mother was charged with their murders on Friday. Their 8-year-old brother, Xaveious Brown, escaped.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/09/06/1848679/services-for-2-kids-killed-in.html#ixzz1XClkR8xz
 
From last week:

St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly thanked the family members who came to a news conference Friday morning in East St. Louis at which Kelly announced the charges. Smith's family wept.

"We love Yokeia. We will always be here for her. We do not know why she did what she did or understand it, either. Sometimes things happen that can't be understood. I know God will keep us and hold us," said her aunt Martenia Jones.

She asked that the community pray for her family.

"We'll stand together and we'll get through this," Jones said, her voice cracking.


Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/09/02/1844264/east-st-louis-mother-charged-with.html#ixzz1XCm82xDV
 
Jama Burries said she and her family are grieving the loss of her niece and nephew. Burries said her brother, LeVada Brown, the children's father, is incarcerated in Wisconsin.

"He didn't know anything until I talked to him earlier this morning," she said Thursday in the aftermath of the shootings. "When he heard the tragic news, he was just crying."

"I still love her and wish this never happened. I wish I could've been there and she and I were still talking, maybe this wouldn't have happened. I don't know what went on in her head," Burries said.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/09/02/1843770/child-shootings-suspect-charged.html#ixzz1XCmbqjNZ
 
4e73b94a4aa93.image.jpg

Illinois mom charged in 2 kids' deaths denied bond

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-...876-5891-acff-7db776a66313.html#ixzz1YPsjT8HH

Smith's relatives have publicly pledged their support for her, saying she was bipolar and on anti-depression medication. Smith's lengthy criminal background includes a litany of traffic offenses and various instances of assault and battery, most of them misdemeanors that authorities have suggested were not indicators that Smith's legal troubles would escalate to murder.

Smith told a judge Friday her income was $674 in monthly Social Security benefits.
 

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