Sharif Khan

Sharif Rahman Khan was a 32-year-old male software engineer from Bhopal, India, who was working for the IT firm Birlasoft in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. Friends and family remembered him as a well-liked, popular, and kind person. He lived in the nearby suburb of Creve Coeur.

On the afternoon of March 31, 2021, Khan was visiting a female friend at an apartment building in the 700 block of West Canterbury Road in University City. A man named Cole J. Miller, then 23, arrived at the building, despite having been told to stay away by one of the apartment’s leaseholders. Investigators stated that Miller had developed a romantic fixation on the woman who lived there. An argument broke out between Khan and Miller in a common corridor after Khan demanded that Miller leave.

The confrontation escalated into a physical struggle. Witnesses told police they heard the men screaming. According to court documents, Khan was armed with a baseball bat and struck Miller before Miller fired several shots, fatally wounding Khan. Miller fled the scene after the shooting. First responders transported Khan to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Police located and arrested Miller several hours later at a bar in Maplewood. Miller claimed he had shot Khan in self-defense.

Prosecutors initially charged Cole J. Miller with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and receiving stolen property. In February 2024, Miller, then 25, pleaded guilty to the amended charges of voluntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm. As a convicted felon, Miller was prohibited from owning a gun. A judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison for his role in Sharif Khan’s death, bringing the case to a close.