Nearly three months after Deandre Spears was found shot to death inside a home on the 800 block of Gustav Avenue, St. Louis homicide detectives say they still have no tips and no leads on who killed him. Police renewed their public appeal for information on Friday, hoping someone in the Baden neighborhood or beyond is finally ready to talk.
Spears was killed on May 26, 2026, and his body was discovered after officers responded to a call about an open door at the residence, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Officers arrived on scene sometime between 1:40 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. that day and found Spears dead inside from a gunshot wound. In its own post seeking help identifying a suspect, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed investigators still have no tips or leads pointing to who is responsible.
The 800 block of Gustav Avenue sits in Baden, a residential pocket of far north St. Louis, per the same Post-Dispatch report. It is not the only recent bloodshed on that stretch of street. Just 20 days before Spears was found, 31-year-old Cortez Fleming was shot and killed inside an apartment on that same block, as reported by KSDK. In that case, a 36-year-old woman was arrested on May 28, 2026, and charged with first-degree murder — a resolution that has so far eluded the Spears investigation.
A Family Said Goodbye While the Case Went Cold
Visitation and funeral services for Deandre Lee Spears were held on June 13, 2026, at the William C. Harris Funeral Directors Spanish Lake Chapel in St. Louis. While his family laid him to rest, the case sat without a break for weeks, and now stretches toward the three-month mark with no publicly identified suspect.
St. Louis Regional CrimeStoppers is offering up to $5,000 for anonymous tips that lead to a felony arrest in homicide cases, a standing reward structure the organization maintains across the region's unsolved killings. Tipsters can call the CrimeStoppers line directly at 866-371-8477. Anyone with direct information can also reach the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Division at 314-444-5371.
One Block, Two Homicides, and a Citywide Decline
The violence on Gustav Avenue stands in sharp contrast to the broader trend across St. Louis. The city recorded 139 homicides in 2025, its lowest annual total since 2013 and a 16 percent drop in overall crime from the year before, according to Fox2Now. That decline has continued into 2026, with the city logging 74 year-to-date homicides as of August 3, a pace First Alert 4 described as a decade-low for deadly violence in St. Louis.
Baden itself has carried a heavier burden of violence than the citywide numbers suggest. A neighborhood safety analysis found the community, home to roughly 5,465 residents, recorded 7 homicides and 170 aggravated assaults in a single annual reporting period. Two fatal shootings on the same block within three weeks of each other fits that pattern, even as the city as a whole trends toward historic lows.
Spears' case is also not the first unsolved Baden shooting Hoodline has covered this year. In February, police sought leads in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jaheed Sharp in the same neighborhood, and in December 2025, another Baden man was shot to death as police again asked witnesses to come forward. For now, anyone with information about who killed Deandre Spears is asked to call CrimeStoppers or the Homicide Division, as detectives continue waiting for the tip that could finally break the case open.
