Jesse Emanuel Lopez, 24, was fatally shot on January 7, 2023, at about 2:00 a.m. at a Conoco station in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Surveillance footage shows Lopez allegedly attempting to steal a Honda Pilot belonging to a 26-year-old man, Brett M. Kress. As Lopez fled on foot, Kress pursued and fired multiple times, striking Lopez three times; Lopez collapsed and was pronounced dead at the scene.

After the shooting Kress left the area, crossing into Illinois before returning to Missouri. Officers later found his vehicle abandoned in a ditch in St. Charles County and located Kress hiding in a shed at a nearby mobile home park; he was taken into custody. A second man, Michael Bradley Murphy, was identified as having been with Lopez during the attempted theft and faced tampering with a motor vehicle charges.

What details about that night or the people involved might help clarify how events escalated to deadly force?