Teen’s death on Wash Ave followed block on city’s short-term rental regulations

A teenager is dead after a party at a short-term rental turned violent. The tragedy that played out in Downtown West Sunday comes as the city remains blocked by a judge from enforcing new regulations on short-term rentals like Airbnbs and VRBOs.

Daniel Stahl, 16, of Springfield, Missouri, was hit by a car in the early hours of Sunday morning outside the Ely Walker Lofts building on the 1500 block of Washington Avenue. After booking a short-term rental inside the building, a party organizer held an event on the building’s roof, which police say was attended by “a lot” of people, violating the city’s fire code, as well as rules governing large gatherings, SLMPD spokesman Mitch McCoy says. 

A flier posted to social media shows that rapper Sexyy Red and comedian Druski hosted a faux-talent audition at the Ely Walker Lofts building beginning at 4 p.m., as part of a recurring bit by Druski involving regular people showing off their talents and getting roasted by the comedian in something like a parody of American Idol. 

There is nothing to indicate either Red or Druski had anything to do with the party that happened in the building later that night, other than its time and location appeared to coincide with the earlier event. Social media posts show a police presence amid a raucous scene in the building’s lobby, with at least one person being removed from the building by security. Those same posts indicate that the “St. Louis Auditions” hosted by the pair were cancelled abruptly midway through due to the number of people who showed up. 

Police believe the party started later Saturday night. At some point, a fight broke out in the building’s entryway, as two groups of people argued over who should be allowed in. The confrontation spilled out  onto the sidewalk and then onto the street. A burgundy vehicle pulled up and someone inside the car opened fire. A 29-year-old female was wounded. She is under investigation for possible charges, police say. 

At some point in the melee, Stahl was struck by a vehicle and killed. His family told the Post-Dispatch that he was an “innocent bystander” and that they had participated in the No Kings rally, which took place in the early afternoon the previous day. They did not explain why the boy was on Wash Ave at 1 a.m.

McCoy says that this incident represents something bigger than just a problem for law enforcement. “There is no reason teenagers should be downtown at 3 a.m. carrying guns,” McCoy says. “Parents, guardians have to do their part.”

And while the city feels like it ought to have a bigger role in regulating parties at short-term rentals, for now, those efforts have been hamstrung by the courts. 

In late April, Judge Joseph P. Whyte ordered the city to hold off on enforcing its ordinance, signed into law in November, that would have required anyone who rents out a property that is not their home for a period of less than 30 days to be permitted by the city. 

St. Louis was one of the last major cities in the U.S. to regulate short term rentals. Under its rules, Airbnbs, VRBOs and other short-term rentals would have to have an agent available 24/7 to address concerns, require a minimum stay of at least two nights, and not offer the space for parties, as well as get a permit from the city.

The permit requirement was supposed to kick in on May 6. But in April, a lawsuit seeking to stop its implementation was filed by the operator of a short-term rental in Forest Park Southeast. The suit argued that the city’s new rules violate the Hancock Amendment, a state law barring the government from raising taxes without voter approval. The $150 annual fee that is part of the permitting process, the suit argues, is in essence a hidden tax. Judge Whyte issued a temporary restraining order blocking the permitting requirement on April 22 and then extended it on June 9.

A week later, the party outside the Ely Walker building turned violent.

The Board of Aldermen could potentially pass a new ordinance outlining a permitting process that doesn’t contain the fee that purportedly runs afoul of the Hancock Amendment. But aldermen say that seems unlikely right now given that recovery and rebuilding efforts related to the May 16 tornado are eating up much of the city government’s bandwidth. That’s particularly true of the Building Division, which had been responsible for overseeing the permitting process and is now trying to ensure that structures being lived in are, in fact, habitable. 

“I believe the [Spencer] administration prefers to wait to see what courts say. There’s not a whole lot of bandwidth for enforcement right now either given where building inspectors’ priorities are,” says Alderman Bret Narayan, who sponsored the original bill regulating short-term rentals. 

A City Hall insider says that, because the board goes into summer recess on July 11, and given the number of meetings it takes for a bill to be passed by the board, there isn’t enough time for the board to both introduce and pass something like this with the meetings currently on the calendar: “That would be a tight schedule for any bill, let alone something like this.”

The Ely Walker building has seen a number of shootings in recent years. Residents complained publicly in 2023 when the building saw two shootings in the same month, with a resident expressing dismay that one of the assailants retained access to the building afterwards. 

At the time, the building was controlled by STL CityWide, also known as Asprient and Luxe Living, which has become one of the city’s more notorious multi-family property owners. While some Ely Walker residents owned their units, STL CityWide reportedly controlled 51 percent of the units, which left the condo association at their mercy. The company’s owners were later charged with wire fraud in federal court. Those charges remain pending.