More than a year after 26-year-old Jerome Mason Jr. was shot and killed during an attempted robbery on West Florissant Avenue, St. Louis police have arrested and charged a suspect they say was caught on surveillance video pointing a gun at him. Diontae Makins, 24, was arrested this week and now faces first-degree murder, first-degree attempted robbery, unlawful use of a weapon, and three counts of armed criminal action in connection with the August 19, 2025, shooting.
The shooting happened near West Florissant and Davidson avenues, where officers responded to reports of gunfire around 5:10 p.m., according to First Alert 4. Court documents cited by the station say Makins and two other people approached Mason inside his car and told him to give it up, then opened fire when he tried to drive away. Separately, KSDK reported that Mason was found in a crashed vehicle and was pronounced dead after being shot multiple times.
Fingerprints and Video Led Investigators to Makins
Court documents indicate that Makins' car was seen leaving the area right after the shooting, and investigators later matched his fingerprints to a spot on Mason's car where surveillance footage showed him touching it, the same station's report notes. Makins is from St. Louis and was arrested Wednesday, more than a year after the killing. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
Years earlier, Makins had a very different profile: he played football and basketball at Lift for Life Academy Charter High School in St. Louis, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
What Makins Faces Under Missouri Law
The charges carry severe statutory consequences. The linked Missouri statute, § 565.034, concerns persons under 18, according to Missouri's state government website. Separately, Missouri Revised Statutes § 571.015 imposes a mandatory minimum of three years in prison with no parole eligibility for armed criminal action, and requires that any such sentence run consecutively to underlying felony convictions, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of a recent Mark Twain carjacking case. With three armed criminal action counts attached to his charges, Makins faces the prospect of those mandatory sentences stacking on top of whatever term results from the murder and robbery counts.
A Corridor Under Continued Scrutiny
Mason's death happened in Walnut Park East, where Show Me Peace operates. The broader West Florissant Avenue corridor has continued to generate violent crime investigations well into 2026, including a September homicide in the adjacent Mark Twain neighborhood.
The case also lands amid broader attention to homicides across the region. The year has included homicides in St. Louis. St. Louis County Police have also addressed crime trends in 2025, according to the St. Louis County Police Department.
It remains unclear whether the two other individuals seen with Makins on surveillance footage will face charges. For now, Makins is set to appear in court Friday to answer for a killing that took investigators more than a year to charge.
