ST. LOUIS, MO (October 24, 2024) — Cameron D. Delap, 24, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, shooting at a motor vehicle and two counts of armed criminal action in the death of 35-year-old Shree Hemphill in a parking lot near the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Kingshighway Boulevard on June 19, 2022.

Two groups of young women who had been at a party at the Wohl Recreation Center got into a fight on the parking lot of the Hollywood Beauty store on North Kingshighway. A 12-year-old witness telephoned a relative, who drove to the scene in her Pontiac with Delap in the front passenger seat. Delap got out of the car and fired multiple shots at a Ford Escape as it was driving away from the scene of the fight.

Hemphill and her brother, Marlon Hemphill, were standing with a group of family and friends at a gas station across the street from the fight when Delap was shooting at the Ford Escape. Shree was struck in the chest, fell to the ground and died a brief time later. She leaves behind two young children.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Dylan Lowder and his partner were at a nearby intersection as the Pontiac pulled onto the parking lot and saw the shooting. Officer Lowder got out of his police car and fired four shots at the Pontiac as Delap was getting back inside. Lowder was later able to identify Delap in both a photo spread and an in-person lineup. The incident was recorded on surveillance cameras on several nearby buildings.

Delap was sentenced to 15 years for the voluntary manslaughter, 15 years to be served concurrently for shooting at a motor vehicle, and two concurrent terms of three years each for armed criminal action, to be served consecutively with the other sentences for a total of 18 years.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorney Timothy Wright and Chief Trial Attorney Marvin Teer.

“Instead of trying to defuse a volatile situation, Delap threw gasoline on the fire by bringing a gun,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. “A little common sense and adult intervention could have prevented an innocent bystander’s senseless and untimely death.”

              ###