Shaun Markieth Hawkins

In the predawn hours of Tuesday, September 6, 2016, the life of Shaun Markieth Hawkins, a 26-year-old Black man, was tragically cut short by gunfire in North St. Louis. Known to some by the nicknames "3 weezy" or "2 skrip," Shaun was remembered as a "very influential person." He had previously attended Tupelo High School, though his path after high school and what brought him to Missouri are not publicly known. His death left a void for those who knew him and a painful, unanswered case for the city.

The violent incident occurred just before 1:00 a.m. in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood, a residential area of North St. Louis. First responders were called to the 2800 block of Gamble Street, where they found Shaun outside an apartment building with a catastrophic injury. He had been shot in the head. Despite the efforts of emergency medical personnel, Shaun was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide unit immediately launched an investigation. Detectives cordoned off a significant portion of the block, taping off nearly an entire city street to preserve the crime scene as they began their work under the glow of streetlights. In the initial hours and days following the shooting, authorities stated that they had no information on a potential suspect or a motive for the killing. The investigation sought to piece together the events that led to the fatal encounter on Gamble Street, but the case quickly went cold.

Shaun's homicide was one of 188 recorded in the city of St. Louis in 2016, a year that saw the same number of killings as the year prior, reflecting a stubborn and devastating trend of violence plaguing the community. The neighborhood of JeffVanderLou, where Shaun was killed, has historically been one of the areas most impacted by this violence. His death occurred in the same early morning hours and general area as another high-profile killing that night, that of Ferguson activist Darren Seals, leading to some public speculation about a possible connection, though no official link has ever been established by law enforcement.

In the years that have passed since Shaun Hawkins was killed, his case has remained unsolved. There have been no publicly announced arrests, no charges filed, and no suspects named. The specific circumstances of what he was doing on Gamble Street that morning and why he was targeted remain a mystery. For his family and friends, the lack of answers compounds the grief of their loss.

The investigation into the murder of Shaun Markieth Hawkins is still considered open but inactive. As of September 2016, no new information had been released to the public. The absence of resolution in his case leaves a painful question mark for a community all too familiar with the toll of gun violence.