PINE LAWN, Mo. _ By the time Vanita Walker and Lanna Green got to the scene of the triple fatal shooting here Wednesday morning, police had the site cordoned off and the bodies covered.
Walker came after getting a call from her mother, who saw a TV news report about the shooting and thought she recognized the vehicle involved as that of her grandson. Walker wanted to know if one of the victims was the oldest of her six children, Calvin Walker.
"Please let me identify my baby," she begged a detective on the scene. "This is my first child."
She even gave the detective her cellphone with a picture of her son, but he said he couldn't confirm the identity. The victim was still behind the wheel of the black Dodge SUV and his face was obscured.
Green arrived at the scene after hearing that her son, Andrew Green, might have been one of those killed.
"Please tell me that is not my son," Green cried out as she saw the covered bodies. Besides the one still in the SUV, one was on the sidewalk behind the vehicle and the third in the front yard of a home.
The official word didn't come until later in the afternoon, but it confirmed the fears of both mothers. Their sons, both 29, were among the three killed. The other victim was identified as Marquise Cooper, 23.
North County Police Cooperative Chief Tim Swope had few details to offer at the scene in the 4500 block of Rosewood Avenue: The men had been shot to death about 10:15 a.m. Police were searching for a black Nissan Altima with tinted windows and a white Impala with a spotlight on it that resembles a police car. The Major Case Squad has been activated.
All three victims lived in St. Louis.
The shootings add to a homicide toll in St. Louis County that has spiked in each of the last two years.
In 2016, 76 people were slain in the county, according to data the Medical Examiner's Office provided this week. That number is up 15 percent from the 66 the year before, which had shot up 78 percent over the 37 homicides logged in 2014.
In the city, numbers released in January showed the homicide tally for last year was 188, the same as the year before. In 2014, the total had been 159.
The victims in St. Louis County last year ranged in age from 4 to 71.
St. Louis County police, the largest of the more than 60 police departments in the county, investigated 38 of the killings. The department investigated the same number in 2015.
But the number of homicides within the department's jurisdiction decreased to 25 from 32 the year earlier. The rest occurred in municipalities that asked the county police to investigate.
So far this year, the numbers are also discouraging. St. Louis County police are investigating 15 homicides _ 10 within its jurisdiction and five from other communities. By the same point last year, the department was investigating seven killings.
Another statistic that has also jumped this year is aggravated assaults with a gun, which are up by nearly 30 percent. Most of the homicides have been from gunfire.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar declined through a spokesman to comment on the homicide totals and aggravated assaults, but other law enforcers say what is driving the violence in the county is unclear.
Ferguson Chief Delrish Moss noted that homicides are on the rise nationally.
Moss' city had 10 homicides last year, more than any other city in St. Louis County. That is double the number from 2015. The next highest was Berkeley with six and Bridgeton with four. All three are communities in north St. Louis County.
Moss called some of his city's crimes "closed-door crimes," including a son accused of killing his father and a boyfriend accused of murdering his girlfriend inside their homes. Those types of crimes are hard for police to combat, he said.
"But guns are very prevalent, which makes it more difficult for law enforcement to grapple with," Moss said.
Of all the 2016 homicide victims, about 80 percent died from gunshots.
Moss also noted that his department has 38 officers, even though it is authorized to have 51. Only four out of 61 applicants who have been processed since Moss became chief a year ago have passed the department's hiring checks, he said.
The department experienced a mass exodus after the chief and several commanders and civilian staff resigned or were fired following a critical review by the federal Department of Justice. That review, done in the wake of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by an officer in 2014, accused the Ferguson department of racist policing and court practices.
"We're struggling to get the numbers up and trying very hard to make sure we maintain the quality of officers that we bring on," Moss said.
Most of the police chiefs throughout St. Louis County belong to the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association, which meets monthly to discuss crime trends and other issues.
The group's chairman, Clayton Chief Kevin Murphy, said some attribute the rise in violence to the so-called Ferguson Effect, or the belief that police are less likely to act or confront criminals for fear of getting involved in confrontations that can turn violent and lead to criminal charges against the officers.
The group also is studying best practices when it comes to hiring and recruiting, as departments are struggling to keep their rosters full, he said.
