ST. LOUIS – Last week, St. Louis police arrested a man in connection with a years-old fatal shooting on the Fourth of July in the city’s Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s probable cause statement, the shooting happened just before 10 p.m. on July 4, 2019, in the 2900 block of Gamble Street, along the edge of Norman Seay Park.
Police said Ramon Gibbs was hanging out with his cousin and extended family that evening.
Homicide detectives previously told FOX 2 that a lot of people and families were in the park celebrating the Fourth of July. At some point, someone or a group of people began shooting.
In response to those shots fired, others returned fire. Gibbs, who was sitting in his vehicle and not involved with either group, was caught in the crossfire and killed. He was 21.
A second shooting victim, a 41-year-old man, was hospitalized.
Following a lengthy investigation, police eventually questioned Deonshay Lomax, 27, regarding the shooting. Police said Lomax admitted firing a gun during the shooting and confessed to hiding one or more firearms used that night.
Lomax allegedly promised to retrieve and then turn over at least one of the firearms to investigators. However, police said Lomax never followed through on that promise.
Lomax was taken into custody on Friday, August 23.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged Lomax with one count of tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. Lomax was released on bond on August 26. He’s due back in court on September 25.
