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Lafayette Square shooting leaves residents shaken

It happened Sunday afternoon near the Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health and beside many residents. No injuries were reported.

ST. LOUIS — A shooting in broad daylight near Lafayette Square today, luckily no one was injured.

It happened at about 1:50 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Park Avenue and Dillon Street, near the Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health plus many residential townhomes and apartments. Concerned family members of people living there said dozens of gun casings lined the streets in the area. 

"That's people's lives," said Ainye Reid, whose mother lives in one of those residents on Park Avenue. "That's not funny because what if it happened to you?"

After this seemingly random shooting on Jan. 7, officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department were initially blocking off traffic near Dillon Street and picking up what Reid said was upwards of 40 casings at about 2:45 p.m.

Reid's little brother walked out of their mother's home at about 1:50 p.m. after taking the trash out she said and started to be shot at. He was walking to meet his other sister in her car with a baby in the backseat. It damaged his sister's car, but Reid reiterated, thankfully, no one was hurt. 

"He got in the car," Reid said. Then, "a white car came and was already shooting at the car. They had already shot through the back window of the car. Once they got here, they were shooting. They pulled off and they went to the Salama's (Supermarket) corner store down (Truman Parkway)." 

"Somebody got out on foot and was still shooting at them at that time but it was other people getting shot at as well."

Reid said police told her there were about 26 gun casings just at that Park Avenue intersection alone. 

Real Time Crime Center reported shots at a home at 1500 Park Avenue near the dental clinic and school. When our crews arrived on the scene about an hour after the initial reports, there were still bullet holes in people's doors on Park Avenue. 

On her way to do laundry and bring her three kids to see their grandmother, Reid said she was on the phone with her mother listening to how scared she was from the gunshots she could hear outside her window. 

Reid was left with more questions than answers. 

"That's the thing it's like, why would you wake up and choose to do something like that to people?" Reid said. "Like why? What do you gain out of that?"

We are still waiting to hear back from police about any information regarding a suspect or potentially multiple people involved, along with any possible safety measures being taken by the nearby dental facility. 

Check back for more updates on-air and online as this story develops.

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