Darrell Todd Maurina
Posted: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 8:07 pm

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. -- Police have confirmed that two people are dead following a crash and subsequent shooting inside a St. Robert business.

The names have not been released, but one is a 33-year-old female and the other is a 29-year-old male from U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood. St. Robert Police Chief Curtis Curenton said their relationship has not yet been confirmed.

Standard military protocol requires notification of relatives of military personnel following a death, not only the immediate next of kin, and that often leads to delays of days or weeks before names of military personnel are released.

Curenton said the incident happened in the Hidden Valley Shopping Mall. Reports of additional people being shot or injured are incorrect, he said, and some of the businesses identified as the location of the incident are also wrong.

"There was a vehicle crash that was reported, then we got a report of a man with a gun, then shortly after we arrived on scene witnesses directed us to a specific business and we found the two individuals deceased inside an area of a business where the public doesn't normally enter," Curenton said.

Two vehicles were involved in the crash, and contrary to some reports, no police, fire, or other emergency vehicles were struck and both vehicles were those of the two people involved in the shooting. While details of the crash haven't yet been released, "the crash was not an accident," Curenton said.

In an official statement issued Wednesday evening, St. Robert police said they were notified of the incident at 9:56 a.m. and that the incident is being jointly investigated with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID).

"This is believed to be an isolated incident with no further threat to the public," police said in their statement.