​St. Louis police have identified the victim who died this morning on the playground of Ford Elementary School.

Damon Antonio Walker, 33, died of multiple gunshot wounds this morning around 7:30 a.m.

Police report that Walker lived near the school and had been chased by a suspect onto school property where he was shot. Walker was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suspect is described only as a black male. An investigation is ongoing.

Related Content: St. Louis School in Session Despite Murder in Playground Just Before Opening Bell 

St. Louis police responded to a homicide around 7:30 a.m. this morning at the Ford Elementary School at 1383 Clara in north city.

Ford Elementary School at 1383 Clara

​According to police, the victim -- a man in his 20s who has yet to be identified -- was shot multiple times. The murder occurred just minutes before the school opened for classes. And, yes, open it did today with students ushered into the building on the opposite side of the crime scene.

Even worse news for the kids is that while not canceling classes, the school has canceled recess today as police wrap up their forensics investigation and mop up the blood.

And who says the troubled St. Louis school district isn't dedicated to education!?

Updated here. 

KPLR

Michael Johnson

​A man who St. Louis hip-hop star Nelly referred to as his cousin (or, rather his "cuzzen") was killed Wednesday night outside a home in the 8000 block of Nola, near the intersection of N. Hanley and St. Charles Rock Road.

Michael Johnson, 36, was shot multiple times while leaving or entering the home in unincorporated St. Louis County. Police have no suspects or motives for the crime.

Last night, KPLR Channel 11 and KTVI Channel 2 reported that Johnson was one of Nelly's bodyguards. But that's not true, says Nelly.
More >>

Aaron B. Jackson

​Have you seen this man? He's wanted for the murder of Washington Park Mayor John Thornton, shot to death in the early morning hours of April 1.

Aaron B. Jackson, 34, was picked up early in the investigation and questioned by police as a "person of interest" in the crime. Jackson was eventually released from custody and is now MIA.

Yesterday authorities issued a first-degree murder charge against Jackson. Police are asking anyone who knows Jackson's whereabouts to call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-TIPS.

Alyssa Bustamante

​Last month 16-year-old Alyssa Bustamante's requested that she be allowed to wear her "regular clothes" to trial instead of her prison uniform. Yesterday a judge in central Missouri approved Bustamante's request.

The teen is accused of the horrific murder last fall of her nine-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten. According to authorities, Bustamante dug a grave days before strangling and stabbing to death the girl because she "wanted to know what it was like to kill someone."

The question now is whether Bustamante will dress in her emo attire for trial or wear a more traditional outfit.

Louis Ray Finchem, a 67-year-old south St. Louis resident, was found dead in his home in the 5200 block of Dewey Ave. yesterday around 7 p.m.

5200 block of Dewey

​Initially ruled an accidental death, St. Louis police are now investigating the case as a possible homicide after the medical examiner discovered stab wounds on the victim's body.
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​We now know the identity of the teenager found hanging from a bridge in Cahokia on Sunday.

His name was Lester Wells Jr., a fifteen-year-old who lived less than a mile from the old wooden train trestle where his body was found hanging from a bed sheet.

Police immediately ruled Wells' death a suicide, but his mother Crystal Teague doesn't buy it.

In today's Belleville News-Democrat Teague says that authorities never interviewed her or other family members about the teenager's emotional state and whether they thought he was suicidal. Moreover, Teague says some neighbors saw her son arguing Saturday night with three young men who allegedly forced him into a vehicle.
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Police have identified the man shot and killed early Saturday morning as 32-year-old Carlando Dickens of the 3500 block of Oregon in south St. Louis.

Authorities say Dickens was walking down the street outside his home about 4:15 a.m. Saturday morning when he was fatally struck.

3500 block of Oregon

​A woman walking with Dickens at the time of his murder, say they were approached by an unknown gunman. Dickens was shot in the back and his body found in the adjacent block of 3500 Nebraska.

Brian Reed, 28, was sitting in a car in the 3700 block of Minnesota in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday when he was gunned down by an unknown assailant.
 

3700 block of Minnesota

​

Police arrived to the scene around 12:40 a.m. April 24 to discover Reed's body. A friend of victim's, also seated in the car, was uninjured. Reed lived in the nearby neighborhood of the 3100 block of Oregon.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department

Melvin Patton

​As we mentioned earlier today, St. Louis police have arrested Melvin Patton in the grisly, predawn murders of a brother and sister Julius and Keneka Elliot in their south St. Louis home yesterday.

St. Louis police report that Patton and victim Keneka Elliot had a four-year-old child together. Today Patton, 25, of the 3000 block of Texas in south city was charged with the following and is being held without bond:

• Two counts 1st Degree Murder
• Three counts Armed Criminal Action
• 1st Degree Assault
• 1st Degree Burglary
• 1st Degree Endangering the welfare of a child