ST. LOUIS (AP) - Prosecutors in St. Louis declined to file murder charges in two separate 2020 killings.
Police said Circuit County Attorney Kim Gardner's office decided that self-defense issues kept it from filing murder charges in connection with the deaths of 24-year-old Tobias Courtney and 61-year-old Crystal Strong who died July 26, 2020. But the suspect in that case was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In a separate case, Gardner's office declined to file charges in the Nov. 25, 2020, killing of 19-year-old Deshuan Jackson. Police were also seeking a robbery charge against the suspect in that case, but the charges were declined. Police said prosecutors did not immediately explain why they didn't file charges in that case.
A spokeswoman for the Circuit County Attorney's Office, Allison Hawk, said the cases are under investigation but she declined to comment on why charges weren't filed.