ST. LOUIS — Cinco de Mayo is one of the busiest days of the year on Cherokee Street in south St. Louis.
The street festival takes place on six blocks of Cherokee Street, between South Jefferson and Nebraska avenues from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On its website, it calls Cherokee Street the heart of the city's Latinx food and culture.
More than 100 vendors pack the street and crowds take over.
Martin Casas is the owner of Apotheosis Comics and one of his locations is on Cherokee Street. This is their second year there for the celebration.
He said, "Every year, this is their time to shine and people all over the region and enjoy the area."
However, this year, the festivities faced some violence.
In a 48-hour span, there were six people shot and two killed.
For the first shooting, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said the shooting happened shortly before 11:30 p.m. in the 2800 block of Cherokee Street on Friday night.
Officers responded and found a 34-year-old man inside Exotic Bar with gunshot wounds to his thigh and elbow. The bar's owner tells 5 On Your Side that the man had run inside after being shot nearby.
Officers applied a tourniquet, and he was rushed to a local hospital, where police said he was in serious condition with stable vital signs.
The other two victims were taken to the hospital by car. They both were pronounced dead at the hospital. A fourth victim, a 24-year-old woman, told police she heard gunshots and was grazed on her foot.
Another shooting happened during the Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
The Saturday shooting happened around 7:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of Cherokee Street. A man and woman, both 25 years old, were shot.
Police said the woman told them she was witnessing a fight between a large group of men in the area of Cherokee Street and Ohio Avenue when a suspect began waving around a gun. Both victims said the suspect fired off a shot during the incident.
Casas was in his store when he heard the commotion.
"We had a great day everything was going on as planned. It was the end of the day, temperatures were a little warm and so were attitudes. I was inside my bar and I saw a lot of people running down the street and saw police running up to find out what was going on. I followed them up there to my booth to see if my guys were safe," he shared.
Also nearby is the Love Goddess Healing Oasis.
The owner Brittany Morris caught the chaos unfold on their cameras both nights.
In the surveillance footage, you can hear gunshots outside, while people run inside. Several people were seen falling over trying to take cover.
Morris said two storefront windows were shot out and they are still processing and cleaning up the mess.
On a GoFundMe page, Morris shared, "Yes we have insurance and can get the windows replaced, but we need bulletproof windows or to relocate entirely. So please help me restore the safety and peace of our healing oasis."
If you'd like to donate, click here.
On Monday, police released photos of suspects from Saturday's shooting.
The owner of El Chico Bakery said on Saturday, they packed up and moved inside the bakery at about 7:15 p.m. and saw people running towards Jefferson too.
"It's definitely unfortunate. It definitely felt very scary and put me on high alert. Luckily, there was several police officers who handled the situation and sorted it out," the owner shared.
Casas said while these crimes happened, it doesn't reflect Cherokee Street.
"The business owners down there still need your support, they don’t want you to feel afraid and for the neighborhood to be known for that," Casas said. "This last weekend is no reflection of what Cherokee is."
"I think it will have a safe event next year and the years to come. The business district has been working really hard to build that community up. We can’t let something like this stop that momentum from going," Casas said.
A few days later on Tuesday, the festival organizer Cherokee Street Foundation and the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District released this statement:
Thank you to the tens of thousands of people that celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the Cherokee Street festival this past Saturday by supporting the vendors, cheering on wrestlers and stage performers, dancing in the People’s Joy parade and celebrating the Mexican community here in St. Louis. Thank you for showing our community respect, love and support.
The 2023 festival was planned with increased safety precautions - with an earlier end time (8pm vs 10pm), one less grand stage to increase movement and pedestrian traffic flow, and a highly increased security detail from the SLMPD and secondary officers. Despite those measures, the brazen acts of a handful of individuals brought violence upon festival-goers and our community as the event was shutting down Saturday night.
On behalf of the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District and the festival nonprofit Cherokee Street Foundation, we want to express our sympathy and support for those affected by this weekend’s violence. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the business owners who suffered damages. We recognize the fear and uncertainty that this has caused, and we are committed to doing everything we can to support our community in the aftermath.
Know that this violence will not be swept under the rug. Over the coming days and weeks, we will work closely with our street’s stakeholders, the City of St. Louis Office of Violence Prevention and SLMPD to determine what can be done to ensure that similar acts of violence do not take place in the future. And we will refuse to let the deplorable acts of a few dampen the spirit and culture that our community has built on Cherokee Street. We understand that our community is strong and resilient, and we will continue to work towards making it a safe and welcoming place for all.
We urge our community to come together during this difficult time and support each other. We believe that together, we can overcome any challenge and emerge stronger than ever before.