ST. LOUIS — A family’s dining room in St. Louis reeked of devastation Tuesday afternoon.
Ollie Robinson and her family sat around the table as they grieved the loss of her daughter 33-year-old Jessica Claybon.
“This madness has got to stop. It's just so sad that everybody is losing their children. It's so sad. You know. How am I going to go on? How am I going to tell these kids what happened to their momma?” Robinson questioned.
According to St. Louis police, a group riding in a red Jeep shot inside Claybon's window on Belle Avenue after an argument broke out during a card game inside her home on Monday shortly after 9 p.m.
Robinson told 5 On Your Side her daughter, a mother of two, got caught in the crossfire. She said she was a giving person but would sometimes be "in the not the best company."
“I didn't tell her the way to go. I showed her the way to go. How to be a good woman. How to be a God-fearing woman. I taught her all this. Now I'm left to raise my grandchildren,” she said.
Two other lives were lost within two hours apart the same night in St. Louis.
At about 10:13 p.m. at the corner of Gravois and Russell in South City, police stated a man in his 30s walked into the Conoco gas station buy something when a suspect walked in and shot him.
Police told 5 On Your Side Tuesday afternoon the victim in that shooting was likely targeted.
It is the same gas station where the first homicide of the year in St. Louis happened last week, but St. Louis police Mjr. Ryan Cousins confirmed the homicides are not connected.
At about 8:30 p.m. at the Conoco station on South Broadway, police confirmed that 26-year-old Mahogany Jones was found in the parking lot with gunshot wounds.
The owner told 5 On Your Side Jones was shot in a nearby alley on California Avenue and made her way to the station. She later died at the hospital.
Robinson expressed how she believes there is a better way to solve conflict.
“We don't give life. So, we have no right to take life. If we have an altercation with somebody...you need go to that person a let them know...you offended me. But you don't have to do this gunplay stuff, I plead with you to please put the guns down” Robinson said.
Anyone with information about any of the incidents is asked to contact Crimestoppers at 866-371-TIPS.
“No tip is too small to be considered,” a spokesperson for St. Louis police said. Those who provide tips can remain anonymous.
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