Willie Patton, 36, was shot and killed on a sidewalk in north St. Louis on the evening of Sunday, April 2, 2017. 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.
According to police accounts reported by KSDK, shortly before 8:30 p.m. Patton was standing with a large group of people when a car pulled up and someone inside opened fire. FOX 2 reported that he was found on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. His killing was one of three fatal shootings in St. Louis that Sunday.
No description of the shooter or of the car has been made public in the material found for this account, and police did not release a motive.
Because Patton was standing among a large group of people when the car pulled up, several people likely saw the vehicle and the gunfire. No reward offer connected to his death could be found.
Little has been published about his life. No obituary or family statement for the 36-year-old could be found for this account, and many search results for his name belong to other men named Willie Patton, including an older St. Louis man and people in other states. At 36, he was likely a son, brother or father, and he surely had family and friends who still remember him.
The location recorded in the database places his death in north St. Louis, a few miles northwest of downtown, not far from Fairground Park. The area is a mix of brick homes, apartment buildings and vacant lots. On a spring Sunday evening, people would have been outside, and a car pulling up to a crowd would have been noticed.
Drive-by shootings into groups are among the hardest cases to solve, because witnesses scatter and many are afraid to talk. But the same crowd that makes such a shooting chaotic also means that many people saw something, and some of them may now be willing to share it.
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 Willie Patton could be found in news archives or public records. More than 9 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was in that group on the evening of April 2, 2017, saw the car that pulled up, or has heard someone talk about the shooting 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).
