ST. LOUIS 鈥 Someone used a keycard to gain access to a Washington Avenue office building and then propped the door open for others before Sunday鈥檚 shooting that killed one teenager and wounded 10 others, a city official said Wednesday.
A police captain said investigators are still trying to pin down how the throngs of revelers got inside the building for a party, but St. 亚洲无码 Building Commissioner Frank Oswald offered the keycard explanation at a police briefing with reporters.
鈥淪omehow, somebody got a keycard to get the front door open and they propped the door open to allow these people in, and unfortunately it went downhill from there,鈥 Oswald said.
Oswald said the building is supposed to be closed on weekends. He didn鈥檛 know if a card was stolen or if a tenant gave the keycard to one of the young people who organized the party.
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鈥淲e really have no idea,鈥 Oswald said.
And he didn鈥檛 know which tenant鈥檚 keycard was used, he said.
Oswald said some of the suites in that part of the building are part of an incubator 鈥 a business that functions as a springboard for startups, providing particular resources the startup needs to grow.
He said he didn鈥檛 know if any cards were lost or stolen.
Police said no keycard had been reported stolen, and they couldn鈥檛 confirm one had been used to get in.
Several tenants on Monday said they鈥檝e had security concerns in recent months, including because of doors left propped open at night.
Terry McDonald, the building owner, could not be reached for comment.
Makao Moore, 17, a junior at Sumner High School, was killed in the shooting on the fifth floor of the building about 1 a.m. Sunday. Ten other teens were shot, including two who were shot in the back and three who suffered graze wounds. The shooting victims ranged in age from 15 to 19. One girl, 17, wasn鈥檛 shot but she suffered a possible spinal injury when she was trampled trying to escape.
No one has been charged in the shooting yet. Police are still searching for at least three gunmen. They released surveillance images Tuesday showing youths carrying AK-15-style pistols. One of the boys was wearing a mask.
Sgt. Charles Wall said one 17-year-old boy with a gun was arrested Sunday by plainclothes detectives. They took him into custody near the shooting scene and turned him over to the Family Courts.
But the boy has since been released to a parent, and has not been charged with a crime.
Wall said he wasn鈥檛 sure if evidence definitively tied the boy to the shooting.
鈥淲e were dealing with a very chaotic scene involving numerous shell casings fired from numerous firearms, and the evidence we were able to present to the juvenile courts in the immediate aftermath was not sufficient in their estimation,鈥 Wall said.
Detectives have been asked to do more investigative work, and Wall said the juvenile who was released could still be charged once they do that.
Wall said the juvenile authorities moved forward with a status offense against the boy, known as 鈥渂ehavior injurious鈥 because it is dangerous for a juvenile to have a firearm. 鈥淏ut again that鈥檚 not a criminal offense, it is a status offense,鈥 Wall said, and that status offense alone wasn鈥檛 enough to hold the boy in juvenile court.
Police are still trying to determine the motive for the shooting. Investigators haven鈥檛 said if Moore was a target of the shooter. Wall said investigators have no reason to believe that Moore had a firearm at the party.
Others who attended the party, Wall said, could face trespassing charges.