A 23-year-old man has been charged in the execution-style killing a man believed to be homeless in downtown St. Louis on Monday morning, police said.
Deshawn Tomas was arrested a few hours later and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
The shocking incident, which was captured on video, occurred in broad daylight. Video appears to show Thomas loading a gun, pointing it at a man sitting on a curb on North Tucker Boulevard, then firing it.
The victim was later identified as David Saldana. He was described as a man in his 40s, and he was believed to be unhoused, Maj. Ryan Cousins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Any homicide is unnerving,” Cousins said. “But for this one to happen here, at this time, very much so.”
The shooting happened just after 10 a.m. Saldana was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told investigators there was an altercation at a nearby Shell gas station moments before the shooting.
Thomas was arrested a few hours later. Police said he fled the scene, but authorities caught up to him around 2:40 p.m. as he entered a St. Louis public library branch.
A probable cause statement obtained by local television station KSDK-TV states that surveillance video shows the suspect “following the victim across the street, and first shooting him in the back. As the victim begged for his life, [the suspect] loaded his firearm and shot him in the head.”
