Suspect in fatal highway shooting of St. Louis teen under investigation in another traffic attack

The suspect in the fatal highway shooting of a high school student just outside St. Louis is being investigated in connection with a second highway shooting, according to federal court documents.

Willie Herndon, a 42-year-old man from Arlington, Texas, is charged with the October 14 murder of 17-year-old Alyssa Wilson. In a federal complaint, investigators say a spent shell casing matching the one used in Alyssa’s shooting was found near where a vehicle was struck on another highway three days earlier.

No one was injured in the Oct. 11 shooting in St. Louis itself. The federal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, says a vehicle that had just exited Interstate 55 was struck by gunfire and that security video showed a white SUV parked on the side of the highway when it “fleed the scene immediately following the shooting.”

“Only one shell casing was recovered,” the federal complaint states. “The stamp on the cartridge case was from the same manufacturer as that found by investigators during the investigation into Wilson’s murder.”

Lab tests are underway to determine whether ballistics evidence links the two crimes, according to the complaint.

Herndon is scheduled to appear Tuesday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis for a hearing on his pretrial detention on a federal felony firearm charge, according to the documents, which indicate he was convicted of felonies in Los Angeles for taking a vehicle without consent in 2001 and for receiving stolen property and known burglary in 2015.

Herndon is also scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Nov. 4 at the same courthouse.

His federal public defender did not respond to a request for comment.

A high school student’s life cut short

Herndon was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action after his arrest for the killing of Alyssa, a high school student from Florissant, Missouri, who was driving to a Halloween celebration at the St. Louis Zoo when she was shot to death on October 14.

“Alyssa was 17 years old, excited about her life, excited about her future,” her father, Robert Hickman, said at a news conference Monday. “It was a senseless act.”

Herndon’s wife, Taiya Herndon, allegedly drove the couple to an Illinois hotel about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from St. Louis after the attack, authorities said. The state accuses him of hindering prosecution.

Authorities said Alyssa had no connection to the couple.

It is unclear whether either defendant has been assigned an attorney in the state cases. The St. Louis area public defender’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Following a search of the Herndons’ nearby hotel room in Illinois after the attack, authorities said they found notebooks with handwritten entries, according to the federal criminal complaint.

The entries included license plate numbers, vehicle descriptions and descriptions of law enforcement personnel Willie Herndon believed was following him, according to the complaint.

On Oct. 2, the Herndons drove from Texas to Arkansas and then to Missouri, arriving the next day, all while using one of multiple Oklahoma license plates that did not belong to their white SUV, prosecutors alleged in the complaint. A plate was changed after Alyssa’s shooting, they said.

Murder captured on security video

Investigators, relying on security video from the Oct. 14 attack, said during Monday’s news conference that someone in a white Buick Enclave stopped on the shoulder of the south side of Interstate 170 in Overland, Mo., just outside St. Louis. That person got out, paced and eventually opened fire on Alyssa’s vehicle as it drove by, authorities said.

A single bullet entered the rear of Alyssa’s vehicle and struck the teen in the back, exiting through the chest, according to the federal complaint against Willie Herndon. She had been on her way for 12 minutes to meet a friend at the zoo, he said.

Alyssa was eventually rushed to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where she was pronounced dead, officials said.

Using information from security video, including the white Buick’s license plate number and an Arkansas Razorbacks sticker on its tailgate, authorities tracked the SUV to a Days Inn in Caseyville, Illinois, where detectives spent hours monitoring it on Oct. 15 and 16, authorities said.

When Taiya Herndon approached the vehicle, authorities rushed her, they said. When Willie Herndon quickly exited the hotel, authorities said, he fled and was also taken into custody.

Assorted sockets

The criminal complaint against Taiya Herndon said Willie Herndon admitted to investigators that he opened fire on the side of the highway on Oct. 14 and that she admitted to driving.

“During his interview, Willie Herndon admitted to standing in front of the passenger door of the vehicle on southbound Interstate 170 and firing a rifle,” the state’s complaint states. “Taiya Hendon admitted to driving the white Buick Enclave.”

A search of the Herndons’ hotel room revealed the presence of an American Built Custom Rifle Company version of the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle, according to the federal criminal complaint.

It was loaded with MaxxTech 23 7.62×39 ammunition, which matched the brand and size of the spent shell casings that investigators said they found on the side of Interstate 170 after Alyssa’s attack, according to the federal complaint. MaxxTech was also the manufacturer of the spent shell casings found near the Oct. 11 attack, he added.

Taiya Herndon is due in court Thursday for a bond hearing, set at $500,000 to be paid in full. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19, according to state court records.