Shots shattered the quiet on the 3100 block of Lawn Street in Alton Acres on the night of May 28, 2025. Police responded about 9:33 p.m. and found 41-year-old Donald R. Lane of Alton wounded inside a Ford Fiesta; he was taken to OSF St. Anthony’s Health Center and pronounced dead. Investigators later counted at least 17 spent casings in and around the small car, with rounds striking a nearby apartment building, and another gunshot victim was treated at the hospital and flown to a St. Louis trauma center.

Early investigators described the shooting as a violent encounter among people who knew one another rather than a random attack. Within days prosecutors charged Hosea J. Burgess and Jermaine D. Stiff with unlawful possession of a firearm by a repeat offender, a Class X felony; both were being held pending further proceedings. If anyone saw activity in the Alton Acres area that night or has information about the shooting, contact the Alton Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division.