East St. Louis, IL (AP) – Two teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the killings of five members of an Illinois family who were shot at three different locations.
A 16-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult, while the case against a 15-year-old girl will start in juvenile court before a possible transfer to the St. Clair County criminal court, the county prosecutor’s office said.
Five people were killed and two more were wounded, primarily on Sunday, in a “targeted mass shooting” in East St. Louis, a city across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, police said. Troopers stopped a vehicle and arrested the teens Sunday in a state park, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said.
Court documents don’t reveal a motive. But Marcus May, the father of the 15-year-old, told local news media that the girl was upset with family members and plotted the attacks with Ja’ymeir Davis, her boyfriend.
“I can’t show her no sympathy,” May said. “She chose to do this.”
May said he lost a nephew, two stepchildren, his mother and a sister. They were 74, 49, 25, 24 and 21 years old.
Davis appeared in court on 12 charges, including five counts of murder, and was ordered to remain in custody. The public defender’s office was appointed to represent him. The Associated Press attempted to get comment, but no one answered the phone there.
The shootings mostly occurred over the weekend, but one victim who died, May’s sister Cherie May, was shot days earlier, according to a court filing.
Davis is accused of killing Marcus May’s mother, Patricia May, and cutting off her right thumb.
