# Illinois Family Forced to Plan Five Funerals After Teen Couple’s Alleged Killing Spree Tears Apart Their Own Bloodline
**EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.** — A grieving Metro East family is grappling with an almost unimaginable loss this week, preparing to bury five relatives after authorities say a teenage couple turned a family gathering weekend into a bloody rampage across three locations in East St. Louis, Illinois.
The violence, which investigators have labeled a “targeted mass shooting,” left five family members dead and two others hospitalized with serious injuries. What makes the case especially devastating for the surviving relatives is the revelation that one of the alleged shooters is not an outsider, but blood kin to several of the victims.
## A Weekend of Horror Across Three Crime Scenes
According to state officials, ,the shootings unfolded Saturday at three separate locations in southern Illinois: near the intersection of 39th Street and Summit Avenue, the Gompers public housing project, and Jones Park., ,In each location, the targets were members of the same extended family.,
Illinois State Police identified the victims as ,Cherie L. May, 49; Devin D. May, 24; Patricia A. May, 74; Quentin L. Thompson, 21; and Shania W. Thompson, 25., ,Two additional family members were transported across the river to a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri with injuries described as serious.,
The span of ages among the dead underscores just how far-reaching the tragedy was within a single household. ,The age range of the victims tells its own story — a 74-year-old grandmother, a 49-year-old mother, and three young adults in their twenties.,
Two teenagers — a 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old boyfriend — were taken into custody following a police chase. ,Police captured the 15-year-old female suspect and her 16-year-old boyfriend following a vehicle chase at Frank Holten State Park., Authorities have confirmed a familial link between at least one suspect and the deceased, but out of caution due to the suspects’ ages, officials have withheld further identifying details. ,Police and prosecutors declined to name the 16- and 15-year-old suspects or even reveal their genders a day after they were captured in East St. Louis, and authorities also left open exactly how the suspects are related to each other and to their alleged victims.,
## “She Chose to Do This”
For the family left behind, the anguish is compounded by betrayal. The father of the 15-year-old suspect, Marcus May, has spoken publicly about the devastating reality that his own daughter is accused of killing his mother, son, and daughter. ,”I can’t show her no sympathy,” said the suspect’s father, Marcus May.,
,For Marcus May, the father of the 15-year-old girl, the pain is indescribable as his daughter’s alleged actions took the lives of her brother, sister, and her grandmother, Marcus’s own mother., He was unequivocal in rejecting any excuse for the bloodshed. ,”She chose to do this. No stipulation,” Marcus said. “Everybody had a choice.”,
Among the dead was Devin May, who according to relatives leaves behind a young daughter. ,Loved ones are also working to establish a trust fund for Devin May’s 1-year-old daughter., With five caskets to purchase and services to arrange, the extended family has turned to the community for support. ,Now faced with planning to bury five loved ones, the family is leaning on the community for help to lay them to rest.,
## Officials Call It a “Targeted” Attack
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, who briefed reporters shortly after the arrests, emphasized that investigators do not believe the public faces any ongoing danger. ,Illinois State Police characterized the shootings as “targeted,” telling the public there is no ongoing threat — language that is deliberate, meaning investigators believe the suspects chose these specific victims, not that they fired randomly into crowds.,
Kelly stressed that the tragedy should not overshadow recent gains the city has made against violent crime. ,”It’s terrible. It’s evil. But it will not keep this city down,” Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly told reporters Sunday, referring to the shootings., He added, ,”The progress we have made will not be lost.”,
Statistics back up his assertion that the city has been trending in a safer direction. ,East St. Louis, population 17,500, is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, and had 15 homicides in 2025, down from 34 in 2020, records show.,
## What Comes Next for the Suspects
No charges had been formally filed against either teenager as of the most recent briefing, though prosecutors are expected to weigh serious counts given the scale of the violence. ,The St. Clair County State’s Attorney will decide whether to charge the suspects as juveniles or seek transfer to adult court, a decision that in Illinois depends on the severity of the charges and the age of the defendant., Under state law, even the younger suspect could potentially face adult prosecution. ,Illinois law allows minors as young as 15 to be tried as adults for first-degree murder through a discretionary transfer process.,
A motive for the rampage remains unclear, and investigators have not disclosed what may have driven the teens to allegedly turn on their own relatives. ,Authorities have not disclosed a motive., Meanwhile, the two surviving victims remain in the hospital, their conditions unclear since the initial reports.
## A Community in Mourning
As East St. Louis processes the enormity of the crime, the May and Thompson families now face the painful task of laying five relatives to rest at once — a grandmother, a mother, and three young adults whose lives were cut short in a single, violent weekend. The case has drawn national attention not only for its scale, but for the chilling detail that the accused allegedly include one of the victims’ own family members, leaving a community, and a father, searching for answers that may never fully come.