On the morning of January 14, 2021, police responded to a reported shooting on the 6500 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in the Carondelet neighborhood of south St. Louis. Officers found 68-year-old Blaine Tabares, a resident of that block, dead at the scene from fatal puncture wounds; he was pronounced deceased there around 9:30 a.m.

Investigators quickly focused on a neighbor. Authorities identified 39-year-old Jimmy Carranco, who lived on the same block, and arrested him in connection with Tabares’s death. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office filed charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action against Carranco. No motive has been publicly disclosed.

What did local readers notice about that block on January 14, 2021, or in the days before the killing that might help explain what happened?