ST. LOUIS — Seven people were injured shootings on Christmas Day in St. Louis. Four of the victims are 18 years old and younger.
The first report of a shooting on Christmas came in at 1:15 a.m. Police responded to the 5500 block of Etzel, which is in the West End neighborhood. Officers said they arrived to find a man and woman on a porch with gunshot wounds.
The victims, a 21-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man, told police they got a ride home from a friend’s place and during the drive a gray car was following them. They said when they got out of the car, two unknown people appeared and started shooting at the people inside the gray car.
The victims said they got caught in the crossfire and were hit.
An ambulance took them to a hospital. Their vitals were stable at the time.
At 1:50 a.m., officers were called to the 4500 block of St. Louis Avenue in the Greater Ville neighborhood for the report of a shooting.
A 33-year-old man told police he had just left a gas station when a man walked up to him, pulled out a gun and demanded his personal items. The victim told police he ran away and that’s when the gunman fired one shot, hitting him in the back.
Emergency responders rushed the man to a hospital where he was last listed in critical condition, but he was stable, police said.
The suspect was described as a man with a slim build, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, clean-shaven and wearing a black coat, red shoes, blue jeans and a black, white and red skull cap.
Two 16-year-olds were shot at 10:40 a.m. on Christmas, police reported.
The boys told police they were waiting for the bus at S. Jefferson and Shenandoah in the south city neighborhood of Fox Park when a white car pulled up and someone inside started shooting at them. The victims ran away from the scene, they said.
They were taken to the hospital by a private vehicle, not an ambulance, police said. St. Louis police did not have an update on their condition but said they were stable.
Just after noon on Christmas, two 18-year-olds were injured in a shooting in the north city neighborhood of O’Fallon.
Officers found the men suffering from gunshot wounds inside a black car that had hit an SUV. Both of the victims were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, police confirmed. One of them was unstable.
The investigations for all of the Christmas Day shootings are ongoing. No suspects are in custody at this time.
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