Lester Robinson was a 40-year-old Black man found dead just after daybreak on Sunday, September 26, 2021, on a secluded stretch near the 1700 block of Barbados Lane in Ferguson. Investigators said he had been shot in the head and in the hand; the scene was described as suggesting an execution and was located near a boarded-up residence behind 1710 Barbados Lane. Family members believed he may have been lured to the area and robbed, possibly of drugs, before he was killed, but no motive had been established publicly.

Robinson’s killing was later linked by investigators to a string of September 2021 shootings across St. Louis City and St. Louis County that shared a distinctive signature: shell casings tying multiple scenes to a .40-caliber firearm. Authorities said at least six people were shot in that series and four were killed, and they indicated no clear evidence the victims knew one another.

On November 5, 2021, federal agents arrested 25-year-old Perez Deshay Reed as he traveled by train back toward St. Louis; agents reported finding a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol with him and prosecutors in St. Louis County charged Reed with first-degree murder in Robinson’s killing along with other counts tied to the string of shootings.

If anyone knew Robinson, his movements that week, or saw anything near Barbados Lane the morning he was found, please share information.