ST. LOUIS — A 37-year-old man is in critical condition after he was shot Monday evening in St. Louis’ Shaw neighborhood.
The victim told police he was followed by two teenagers as he was walking home at around 7 p.m. He said they shot him just as he was walking into his home on Castleman Avenue. The suspects then ran off.
The man was hit multiple times and is currently at the hospital in critical condition with stable vital signs.
Shannon Koropchak, a resident of the neighborhood, said she heard the shooting from the backyard of her home.
“It was one of those things where you knew it was close, but you weren’t quite sure where, which was the scary part,” Koropchak said.
Koropchak said she didn’t know the victim, but other neighbors did.
“We spoke with the woman who lived next door and she said he was just a really sweet, kind, guy,” she said.
Koropchak also spoke about how she feels for the victim and the community in which she lives.
“I think my first reaction is just sad,” Koropchak said. “He was just going home as any of us could be going home. Of course, it makes me sad to think that this happened at 7 o’clock at night when there were little kids around.”
The shooting happened less than a block from St. Margret of Scotland grade school. Koropchak said there are always children playing in the school’s lot.
Koropchak said the neighborhood should not live in fear of what happened on Monday.
“You can’t not mow your lawn, you can’t not talk to your neighbors, I refuse to not talk to my neighbors because of something like this,” she said. “This is my neighborhood and I’m just going to live my life and enjoy my neighborhood.”
The investigation is ongoing.
The Shaw Neighborhood Ownership Model released the following statement in response to the shooting.
