ST. LOUIS – Police and prosecutors say a dispute at a Metro East strip club led to a rolling gun battle on the McKinley Bridge in 2023 that left one person dead and another injured.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s probable cause statement, the shooting happened in the early morning hours of March 4, 2023.
Police claim the situation began at Roxy’s Gentlemen’s Club in Venice, Illinois. Two groups of people interacted in some kind of dispute. At some point, the victims left the club and drove away.
Around the same time, police claim Brandon L. Allen, 34, took his girlfriend’s keys and got into the driver’s seat of her Mercedes Benz. Others got in the vehicle and Allen drove off in pursuit of the victims’ car.
Surveillance video shows the two vehicles exchanging gunfire on the bridge around 2:50 a.m. Douglas Sanders, 31, was in the backseat of the victims’ vehicle when he was struck in the head by a bullet and died. A second person in the backseat was struck in the back and spent weeks in the hospital.
Investigators claim the Mercedes used in the shooting is the same vehicle parked outside Roxy’s that Allen had been driving.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged Allen with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of armed criminal action. On May 3, Allen was ordered to remain jailed until trial. He’s due in court for a detention hearing on May 14.