On the morning of May 18, 2020, police in Saint Louis County, Missouri, responded to a shooting reported near an apartment complex in the northern part of the county. Officers found 27-year-old Tyree Matthews in the 9600 block of Jacobi Avenue with at least one gunshot wound; emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene. The Bureau of Crimes Against Persons took over the investigation.

Detectives identified Damion Thomas as a suspect and concluded the shooting grew out of a personal dispute. Police say Thomas went to the apartment of his child’s mother that morning, was let inside, and found Matthews sleeping in her bed. Witnesses and evidence indicated Matthews pleaded to be allowed to leave, yet Thomas fired two shots. An autopsy confirmed Matthews sustained two fatal gunshot wounds, and medical examiner testimony at trial described wound trajectories consistent with the shooter standing above the victim and firing downward.

Thomas admitted he shot Matthews but claimed self-defense, saying Matthews had pointed a gun and that he removed and gave the weapon away. A jury convicted Damion Thomas of second-degree murder in April 2021 and a court sentenced him to 30 years in June 2021. Did anyone in the neighborhood see activity at the apartment that morning or know Tyree Matthews?