ST. LOUIS — An accused serial killer has been charged for the murders of two people and the shooting of a third in the City of St. Louis.
On Tuesday, prosecutors with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s office charged Perez Reed, 25, of Bellefontaine Neighbors, with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and one count of assault.
Reed is suspected of killing six people across two states and shooting several others in September and October.
In St. Louis, police said at 10:23 p.m. on Sept. 16, Reed shot a woman in the face behind a home in the 4500 block of Adelaide Avenue. Police responded to a nearby gas station where they found the victim who was conscious and breathing but unable to provide a statement, according to court documents. The woman survived but had significant injuries, according to court documents.
Police followed a trail of blood that led to the rear of the building along Adelaide Avenue where the shooting took place and found one .40 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge casing at the scene, according to the documents.
Then, less than two hours later, at 11:45 p.m. that same night, St. Louis police found 49-year-old Pamela Abercrombie lying in the street suffering from a gunshot wound in the 3800 block of West Florissant Avenue — only a half mile away from the previous shooting scene. She died at a hospital and police found a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge at that scene as well, according to court documents.
Three days after that, on Sept. 19, police found 24-year-old Carey Ross suffering from a gunshot wound in a vacant lot in the 1500 block of Mullanphy Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and police believe he may have been deceased for an extended period. They found the same type of cartridge casings at that scene.
Police later determined gunshots had been detected in the area where Ross was shot at 11:52 p.m. on Sept. 18. But officers who responded to the area that night did not find Ross.
Reed has already been charged with the murders of two people and shooting a third in St. Louis County.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell hosted a press conference Monday alongside St. Louis police leaders, St. Louis County investigators, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal agents to announce charges against Reed for the murders of 16-year-old Marnay Haynes and 40-year-old Lester Robinson and the shooting of another man who survived.
St. Louis County police allege Reed shot a man on Sept. 12 multiple times in the chest. He was seriously injured and now suffers from a permanent disability, according to prosecutors.
In that shooting, police said the man was waiting at a bus stop when Reed approached him from behind and shot him several times without warning, according to court documents.
The first homicide happened almost exactly 24 hours later at 9:34 p.m. in St. Louis County when Haynes was shot and killed in the 9900 block of Glen Owen Drive. She had been shot in her arm and head and police found two .40 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge cases at the scene, according to the documents.
On Sept. 26, the killer struck in Ferguson. Police found Robinson dead in the 1700 block of Barbados Lane at about 7:15 a.m. after ShotSpotter detected shots had been fired there. They also found similar shell casings at that scene. ShotSpotter is a program that detects gunfire through audio waves and alerts police to the location.
Authorities in Kansas City, Kansas, have not yet charged Reed with the murders of a man and a woman found shot to death in separate apartments there earlier this month, but federal investigators have connected him to those crimes.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a weapons charge against him related to the case.
He is in federal custody, and bail has been set at $2 million should he be transferred to St. Louis County.