An 18-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with the deaths of a 27-year-old-mother and her 8-year-old daughter and a third victim in St. Louis. The arrest was reported Thursday by KMOV. The suspect’s name has not been released.
This comes the day after Terri Bankhead and her daughter, Da’Nilya, were found shot to death and tied to a bed on Wednesday afternoon inside their Fairground neighborhood apartment in north St. Louis.
St. Louis police say the suspect was already in custody on unrelated charges and warrants have been applied for in the killings.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said they received a 911 call from a woman who went to check on her daughter around 3 p.m. when she was unable to get in contact with her. After arriving at her daughter’s home, the woman, who was not identified, found her daughter and granddaughter dead.
Social workers were contacted by the police to console the grieving woman. Chief of Police John Hayden described the scene as trauma-inducing, according to Newsweek.
“It’s traumatic for anybody involved, whether it be [emergency medical service workers], whether it be department personnel officers, anybody that’s exposed to that scene would be affected by it,” Hayden said.
Sha’Greggria Brown is Bankhead’s first cousin, but they were more like sisters. She went by the nickname ‘Shug.’
“Growing up with Shug it was never a dull moment, like you’re going laugh the entire time, she should have been a standup comedian. We all from St. Louis, and yes we did all grow up together pretty much every day,” Brown said.
“If didn’t nobody have no money and Shug did, we all had some. That’s the type of person she is. She is so giving. She’s fun to be around. She’s down for her friends, she was very loyal. When I got the news I was like ‘why, like I don’t understand, come on Shug,'” Bankhead’s cousin told KMOV4.
Brown describes how this tragedy has affected her family and the community.
“It’s an 8-year-old that was just murdered and tied up in your community. We need to stand up and take control of our community. Do something better, everyone just do something. Something needs to be done,” Brown said. “Everyone feels like they need to move out of town for a better life and this is where we grew up at.”
According to KMOV, earlier that morning police found 26-year-old Victoria Manisco dead on a porch in the 1100 block of Dover Place in the Carondelet neighborhood at about 6 a.m. It’s believed Manisco was shot and killed just before 11 p.m. on Aug. 10. Police believe that the suspect is connected to this murder as well but have yet to reveal why.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help with the funeral arrangements and support the family.
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