Was it self-defense? Man killed in East St. Louis barbershop was shot 25 times.
Jabril Ross had been threatening people inside an East St. Louis barbershop one day last year, and after he pulled out a gun, he was shot 25 times, according to testimony Tuesday in a St. Clair County courtroom.
It was the final, 25th shot that was a focus of a pretrial detention hearing for Brandon M. Lee, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ross on Jan. 7, 2023.
Ross had already been shot 24 times, and was lying on his back across a glass table in the barbershop in the 7400 block of State Street, according to the prosecution.
“He was no threat at that time,” St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Levi Carwile said.
But after an 8-second pause in the gunfire, there was one last gunshot to Ross’ neck and that was the fatal shot, Carwile said.
Carwile said Lee “made a conscious” decision to fire the last shot that killed Ross, a 35-year-old East St. Louis resident.
Carwile asked Associate Judge Jeff Watson that Lee be held in jail until his trial, while Assistant Public Defender Satchel Conroy argued that Lee had acted in “self-defense” in the barbershop and asked that Lee be released pending his trial.
Watson, who noted that Ross was shot 25 times and there are multiple witnesses in the case, ruled Lee should be remanded to the St. Clair County Jail.
He told Lee that it would be up to a jury to decide whether he acted in self-defense in the shooting.
Lee, 33, of Belleville surrendered to police on Thursday, just over a year after Ross’ death. He was charged on Jan. 29.
Conroy told Watson that Lee has been a “grade-A citizen” and is willing to wear a monitoring device if he is let out of jail before his trial.
The shooting was investigated by the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Public Safety Enforcement Group with assistance from the East St. Louis Police Department, according to a news release last week from state police.
Illinois ended its cash bail system on Sept. 18. Since then, Illinois judges have conducted detention hearings to determine whether someone charged with serious offenses should remain in jail before their trial.
