On January 26, 2021, 60-year-old Brantley Brant Tate was shot and killed in the parking lot of Marygrove Children’s Home in Florissant, Missouri. Tate worked at Marygrove for 35 years, rising from a floor technician to Director of Maintenance. Police found him with a single gunshot wound just after noon; he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

Authorities identified 53-year-old Christopher Owens, a recently fired employee and Tate’s subordinate, as the person who returned to the property after being terminated, retrieved personal belongings and shot Tate. Owens fled the state after the killing and later turned himself in, reportedly confessing and saying he had intended to kill his former supervisor. He was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and held without bond.

Tate’s family described him as kind and generous and spoke about the void his death left. Does anyone who worked at Marygrove or lived nearby remember tensions around the termination earlier that day or have information about what happened in the parking lot?