An unhoused man was stabbed in the neck near 13th Street and Cass Avenue north of Downtown St. Louis on Thursday evening, according to police, leaving him in critical condition. The attack happened around 7 p.m., and at least one witness at the scene is refusing to cooperate with investigators.
Police responded to the area near 13th and Cass and found the victim suffering from a stab wound to the neck, according to First Alert 4. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has deployed more officers to the area and said it is continuing to work with city partners on broader public safety concerns there. No details about a suspect or possible motive have been released, and it remains unclear whether the victim was targeted because he was unhoused.
A Corridor Already Marked By Violence
Thursday's stabbing adds to a grim run of violent incidents that have concentrated around the same eight-block stretch of 13th and Cass in 2026. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation found that six people were shot dead in a 66-day span in that corridor during the spring, with police and local advocates pointing to open drug activity, vacant buildings, and growing unhoused encampments near the former Greyhound bus terminal as contributing factors, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The intersection sits directly next to the abandoned terminal and several vacant lots that have long served as encampment sites, and nearby business owners have reported repeated property damage and violent altercations tied to those unmaintained spaces.
In March, a daylight shooting outside a smoke shop at the same intersection left two men dead and three others critically injured after a large group gathered outside and gunfire broke out, per KSDK. And in April, an unhoused man was shot and killed at a homeless encampment at 10th and Cass Avenue, just three blocks east of Thursday's stabbing, after an argument involving people who did not live in the camp — residents told the station he was shot near his tent while trying to de-escalate the dispute.
A Pattern Of Stabbings In Abandoned Buildings And Camps
The neighborhood has also seen a string of stabbings distinct from the shootings. In July, police investigated a stabbing in the 1400 block of North 13th Street and released surveillance images of suspects fleeing in a burgundy sedan and a red SUV, appealing to the public for tips through CrimeStoppers, as Hoodline reported in its piece on suspects caught fleeing the scene. Just days before that, three men were stabbed inside the vacant Carr School building at 15th and Carr Streets, a few blocks west of 13th and Cass, leaving one victim in critical condition and prompting police to detain multiple people at the scene.
Those incidents illustrate a broader pattern of violence occurring in abandoned structures and unhoused gathering spots throughout Carr Square this year. Specialized St. Louis police units, including the Mobile Reserve and Anti-Crime Task Force, have been regularly deployed to high-incident corridors like 13th and Cass to respond to street takeovers and violent crime surges, with department spokespeople citing high call volumes across north downtown sectors, according to KSDK.
How The City Tracks And Shelters Unhoused Residents
St. Louis has invested in more sophisticated tools for tracking its unhoused population in recent years. In 2024, the city became the fourth in the country to obtain certified by-name data on all single adults experiencing homelessness through the Built for Zero initiative, according to Community Solutions, moving the city beyond relying on a single annual overnight count toward real-time case management.
The city has also expanded emergency shelter capacity. An official After Action Review released by the City of St. Louis in July detailed that the city allocated $3.36 million to winter unhoused services, bringing more than 700 peak overflow emergency shelter beds online across the city, with the Department of Human Services noting ongoing efforts to improve data tracking and shelter partnerships. Separately, Missouri's legal landscape around encampments shifted in December 2023, when the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a state law that had made unauthorized camping on state land a Class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 15 days in jail, ruling it unconstitutional under the state's single-subject rules; civil rights organizations had argued the ban criminalized homelessness, per KSMU.
It remains unknown whether Thursday's victim was targeted because he was unhoused, and it is unclear whether the witness declining to cooperate is doing so out of fear of retaliation tied to encampment dynamics in the area. Police have not released further details as the investigation continues.
