On the morning of October 31, 2021, officers in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis responded to a call at a residence in the 5000 block of Kensington Avenue. They found 41-year-old Demetrius Combs lying on the floor of a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Emergency responders were on scene but Combs was pronounced dead there.

Investigators report an altercation between Combs and another man at the residence. The other man told detectives he had been assaulted during the dispute, retrieved a firearm afterward, and fired, striking Combs in the stomach. Authorities arrested 45-year-old Leeland Ross, who lived in the 5100 block of Enright Avenue, at the scene and charged him with first-degree involuntary manslaughter; he was ordered held without bail. The specific nature of the dispute has not been disclosed.

Did anyone in the Academy neighborhood see or hear anything around 6:00 a.m. that morning?