A Missouri man recently arrested for a string of seemingly random shootings in St. Louis County that left two people dead and a third severely injured is now being eyed in several other shooting deaths locally and in Kansas, authorities said Monday.
Perez Reed, who turns 26 on Wednesday, was charged Saturday with two counts of murder and one count of assault for three shootings in September that killed two people, including a teenager. A third victim was left permanently disabled, St. Louis County prosecutors said.
Reed is suspected of shooting a man multiple times in the chest in St. Louis County on Sept. 12, leaving him with serious physical injuries and permanent disability. The following day, authorities said they believe he shot 16-year-old Marnay Haynes at least twice “in a distinctive manner,” also in St. Louis County, killing her.
Two weeks later, on Sept. 26, a man identified as Lester Robinson was shot at least twice “in the same distinctive manner” in St. Louis County and died, prosecutors said.
The same shell casings from a .40-caliber handgun were found at all three crime scenes and descriptions of the shooter by witnesses at the scenes were of someone who shared the same “unique physical characteristics,” said St. Louis FBI Special Agent In Charge Richard Quinn at a news conference Monday.
Those shootings were then compared with three other similar shootings in the city of St. Louis, also in September.
According to a federal court affidavit obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a woman was shot in her face and hospitalized in St. Louis on Sept. 16. Roughly an hour later, 49-year-old Pamela Abercrombie was fatally shot about a half-mile away. Three days after those attacks, on Sept. 19, 24-year-old Carey Ross was found shot dead in a vacant lot, also in St. Louis.
According to the affidavit, authorities are also looking into whether Reed could be tied to two separate fatal shootings in Kansas City, Kansas, about 250 miles west of St. Louis. That’s where Damon Irvin and Daja Fairrow were both found dead in an apartment complex earlier this month.
Reed was apprehended by an FBI task force on Friday. Prosecutors said Reed was carrying a .40-caliber handgun that matched shell casings found at all six St. Louis-area shootings.
All of the St. Louis County victims appear to have been randomly chosen and “to a degree” it was as though they were shot in a way that could be linked back to the same person, as though a signature, St. Louis County Police Lt. Craig Longworth said at Monday’s news conference.
Authorities said they are certain Reed’s arrest has stopped additional killings from happening.
“For over two months now these detectives have worked tirelessly on this case,” St. Louis Metropolitan Police Major Ryan Cousins said at the news conference. “I am certain that without their efforts this subject would have went on and committed more homicides.”
Reed’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.