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The 1100 block of Washington Avenue, where gunmen killed Brandi Hill.
As St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers tried to save 21-year-old Brandi Hill from bleeding to death in the streets of downtown St. Louis, her nine-month-old daughter was likely still trapped in the car two gunmen were willing to kill for.
Until they threw her out of it—still buckled into her car seat. A passerby found her three miles away from the shooting near Fairground Park, the place Hill said she’d wanted to take her daughter in her last-ever post to Facebook.
Hill died, despite being rushed to the hospital. And while her daughter, who is now in the care of family members, emerged from the incident unhurt, St. Louisans quickly latched onto her ordeal as yet another example of how dangerous St. Louis’ violent crime problem is.
Here’s what happened, according to police: Hill, her daughter, and an acquaintance were driving at 10:30 p.m. Sunday on Washington Avenue when two male gunmen approached the car on foot and announced a robbery. One gunman shot Hill before the men fled in her vehicle with her daughter still inside. Officers found Hill unconscious and lying in the street in the 1100 block of Washington Avenue, a popular nightlife district. The carjackers threw Hill’s daughter out of the car at Angelica and 22nd streets. Police later found the car unoccupied.
Police also released this video of the suspects before and after the carjacking:
The suspects tried to set the car, a red Dodge Charger, on fire before abandoning it in an alley a mile away from where they dropped Hill's baby, according to KMOV.
Police Chief Sam Dotson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch police were within a block of Hill when she was shot. The acquaintance, a pregnant woman, was too distraught to give a statement to police and was taken to the hospital.
The story sent a shockwave through St. Louis, named the most dangerous city in the U.S. and 15th most dangerous in the world in a ranking from a Mexican non-governmental organization Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Publica y la Justicia.
In one post that's been shared more than 200 times, Facebook user Trixie Le'Ray H calls for St. Louisans to speak out in protest of Hill's killing as much as they speak out against police killings of blacks.
"This hit close to home...EVERYONE in Stl should be concerned about the violent climate," she wrote.
(Language below may not be suitable for all workplaces.)
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
