Leon Smith Jr. was 21 when he was killed by gunfire in north St. Louis in November 2017, one of three people shot to death in that area on the same day. Investigators identified and charged William Pearson Jr. in Smith’s killing and in the wounding of a woman who was at the scene, and a murder trial was set. Smith’s family waited five years for that trial.

On the eve of the proceeding, in November 2022, prosecutors dropped the case against Pearson Jr.; no reasons for the dismissal were provided. Pearson Jr. later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a separate 2018 killing and received a ten-year sentence. With the 2017 charges dismissed and no other suspects publicly named, Smith’s death remains without a legal resolution. Did anyone in north St.

Louis in November 2017 see or hear anything that could help close this case?