FERGUSON, Mo. — St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said her cousin was shot and killed in Ferguson Saturday night, and police are now looking for the suspected gunman.
Jones said her cousin, a 27-year-old woman, was killed after a dispute escalated to gunfire Saturday night.
"Recently it hit home for me, the double murder in Ferguson was my cousin, Maya," Jones said in response to a question about crime in the St. Louis area. "She was just 27-years-old and was two months pregnant."
In a press release, the police department said the incident started as an argument outside the home on Meadowcrest Drive at around 7 p.m. They said one woman showed up at the house to confront someone who lived there, and two other women arrived a short time later.
A family member of the person who lived at the home tried to intervene, but one of the women assaulted the family member. The three women then forced their way into the home. Two of them began destroying things inside the home and the third was flourishing a gun.
When the family member came back into the house, he shot at the woman who was flourishing the gun. The gunfire hit the armed woman and another woman, killing both of them.
Police said the man then drove off before officers could arrive. Police said he was last seen driving a black, two-door Cadillac sedan.
Police have not confirmed the identity of any of the victims or the suspected shooter.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the suspected shooter is asked to call 911.
Mayor Jones said she remains motivated to intervene before violence like this occurs.
"While my family is preparing to bury her, and we just lost her father a few years ago, it's hard for us, and I'm sure it's hard for all of our families who have been visited by gun violence," she said. "But as mayor, I remain committed to investing money in community violence intervention programs and using all the tools in the toolbox to get our crime rates down and address violence head-on."