ST. LOUIS — Police arrested a man over the weekend believed to be the serial killer responsible for six murders and several shootings that happened in St. Louis, St. Louis County and Kansas City, Kansas, during a span of several weeks in September and late October.
Police linked Perez Reed, a 25-year-old Bellefontaine Neighbors man, to two murders and one shooting in St. Louis City and two murders in St. Louis County after he used the same gun to shoot all of the victims, a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, according to multiple police sources. He was also connected to two deadly shootings in one Kansas City, Kansas, apartment complex.
On Sunday night, he was charged with the murders and the shooting in St. Louis County. Although he has yet to be charged in connection with each of the crimes, police sources have told 5 On Your Side's Christine Byers that he is the primary suspect in each one.
The crimes began with a near-fatal shooting that left a man with a permanent disability on Sept. 12. Less than 24 hours later, that spree turned deadly.
Sept. 12
A man was shot several times in the chest while waiting at a bus stop about 9 p.m. at 1624 Chambers Road in Dellwood. Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said the man survived but was left permanently disabled.
Sept. 13
At 9:34 p.m. in the 9900 block of Glen Owen Drive in St. Louis County, 16-year-old Marnay Haynes was shot and killed. 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.
Sept. 16
At 10:23 p.m., a woman was shot in the face behind a building 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.
Police followed a trail of blood that led to the rear of the building 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.
Sept. 18
At 11:52 p.m., police received a report of shots fired picked up in the 1500 block of Mullanphy Street in north St. Louis by ShotSpotter technology. Officers dispatched to the scene did not find a victim.
Sept. 19
The next day, a man was found dead from gunshot wounds in the same area. Carey Ross, 24, was found in a vacant lot suffering from a gunshot wound. 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. They later determined he was likely the victim of the shots fired the night before.
Sept. 26
Police found 40-year-old Lester 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.
Oct. 28
Police found Reed traveled from St. Louis to Kansas City on Oct. 28 on an Amtrak train. About an hour-and-a-half after he arrived at Union Station, Reed was seen in surveillance video from the high-rise, 302-unit apartment where two of his suspected victims lived. The video showed one of the victims, 35-year-old Damon Irvin, holding the door for Reed as they both entered the building.
Four minutes later, both are seen walking into Irvin's apartment together. Irvin's family was unable to reach him after Oct. 28 "despite numerous attempts to do so," according to court documents.
Oct. 29
Security staff at the victim's apartment building documented that on Oct. 29, 25-year-old Rau'Daja Fairrow entered the building with Reed, who presented a driver's license with his name on it. Surveillance footage captured an image of Reed with a crescent tattoo on his forehead.
The cameras captured Reed entering Fairrow's apartment at about 6:58 p.m. on Oct. 29 and leaving at 7:16 p.m. Fairrow would not leave the apartment again.
Nov. 1 and 2
Kansas City, Kansas, police found the body of Irvin on Nov. 1 and the body of Fairrow on Nov. 2 inside the apartment building. Police believe they had been shot and killed several days before they were found, according to sources.
On Nov. 2, police found Fairrow's nude body inside her apartment in the same complex. She had been shot in her head and upper back, and her cellphone and wallet were missing, according to court documents.
Nov. 5
Reed was taken into custody in Independence, Missouri, after investigators connected his cellphone to an Amtrak ticket he bought to bring him back to St. Louis from Kansas City. FBI agents followed him onto a train, according to court documents.
He got off the train and boarded a bus. Police arrested him when he got off the bus in Independence.
Once in custody, Reed confirmed his cellphone number to police, admitted he provided his identification to a security guard at the apartment complex in Kansas City, Kansas where two of the victims were found and denied hurting anybody, according to police sources.
The sources said he had the alleged murder weapon and shoes that matched evidence found at the crime scenes.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect spelling of Carey Ross' name after the St. Louis Police Department provided inaccurate information.