ALTON - A man was killed in an apparent homicide in the 900 block of Union Street in Alton early Sunday morning.
Alton Police confirmed the body found in the street was a male and the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis had been called in to help investigate.
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Edward Jordan, a resident in a nearby house in the 950 block of Union in Alton. The crime scene from Union to Central in Alton was blocked by police with yellow tape for several hours this morning while investigators checked out the area.
Jordan said he was in his house on Union sleeping when he heard four or five shots.
“I heard pow, pow, pow, pow and that was it, about 4:10 in the morning,” Jordan said.
Jordan pointed close to a fence area close his house and said: “The shots probably happened in the driveway here.”
Jordan said he was startled by what happened with the shots because his roommate was out celebrating Mother’s Day and he worried she might have been shot.
“Me and another guy in the house came out when we heard the shots,” he said. “He went out the front door and I went out the back door. When we came out we found a man had been shot. The police came from Midtown and and were right on top of it, here within one or two minutes.”
Jordan said from what witnesses said there were two guys fighting right here, as he pointed to a fence area near his house. He said witnesses said the men had also been seen earlier at a nearby bar.
“One of the guys apparently sat his beers down and the shots started happening,” Jordan said. “He (the man who was shot) was probably in the state of shock and ran down the street and fell. He was breathing for a couple minutes, but he stopped breathing shortly after.”
One of the startling things to Jordan was that no shell casings had been found yet, which led him to believe it could have been done with a 38-caliber handgun. With a 38-calber revolver, the shell casings would stay within the cylinder. Police were not asked the question about the shell casings but were investigating the scene continuing to look for evidence this morning.
Jordan, who served in the Navy for several years and is trained with weapons, said: “The shots could have been fired at close range close to the man, almost in execution style because there were no shell casings yet found.”
When police arrived, Jordan said the two beer cans were there on the ground with Lotto tickets and a phone.
More information will be released as it develops.
