Fernando Bland, 50, was shot on Monday, November 17, 2014, in the 800 block of Canaan Avenue in far north St. Louis. He survived for nearly three months before dying of his injuries in February 2015. The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists his case as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported his death under the headline "St. Louis man shot in November dies," saying that Bland had been wounded in November and died in February of his injuries, and that his death was officially ruled a homicide. The material found for this account does not say what time he was shot, how many times, whether anyone else was hurt, or whether he was able to tell police anything about what happened during the weeks he survived.
No suspect description, vehicle, person of interest or motive has been made public in the material
found for this account, and no reward offer connected to his death could be found. The crime-tracking site CrimeTea lists his case as an active, unsolved murder.
Little has been published about his life. No obituary or family statement could be found for this account, and many search results for his name belong to other men named Fernando Bland, including people in North Carolina and Georgia. At 50, he was likely a father, brother or uncle with long roots in the city, and he surely had family and friends who sat with him during the months he was hospitalized.
Canaan Avenue is a residential street on the far north side of St. Louis, close to the city's northern border with St. Louis County and not far from the Mississippi River. It is lined with small homes, and the people who live on a block like that tend to know who belongs there. A shooting there on a Monday in November would have drawn attention.
Cases where the victim dies weeks or months later can lose public attention, because the first news reports describe a shooting rather than a killing. That may be part of why so little has been written about his case.
St. Louis, a city of roughly 300,000 people, has for years had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. Police recorded about 120 homicides in 2013, 159 in 2014, 188 in both 2015 and 2016, and 205 in 2017, the most in roughly two decades. In many of those years, detectives solved fewer than half of the city's killings.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Fernando Bland could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Canaan Avenue in November 2014, visited Fernando Bland while he was in the hospital, or heard him or anyone else talk about who shot him may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division at 314-444-5371, or leave an anonymous tip with CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477).
