ST. LOUIS — One day last fall, a car merged onto Interstate 55 going south.
It carried at least one person under federal investigation for suspected involvement in a drug ring.
Then an Audi pulled in behind the car on the highway. And someone inside opened fire.
Gunfire hit the car about 26 times, records show.
But at least one bullet went astray.
That bullet, according to federal court records unsealed this week, flew across the highway and hit the SUV carrying 16-year-old Colin Brown, a Christian Brothers College High School hockey standout who was heading home to O’Fallon, Illinois, with his father. Brown died days later in the hospital.
The killing sparked grief and outrage across the St. Louis region. Police hunted for leads, and Colin’s family, friends and even anonymous donors pitched in for a $15,000 reward.
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This week, authorities unsealed a nine-person federal drug distribution indictment that reveals new information on Brown’s death and the people involved in it. The documents outline how the group transported drugs from Mexico then sold them in the region. Over the course of the investigation, thousands of dollars and “large quantities†of cocaine changed hands, records show.
The documents don’t say why the people in the Audi fired at the car on I-55, nor the relationship between the parties. But they show that, by the day Colin was shot, federal investigators had been tracking members of the ring for months. Authorities had tapped phones, coordinated drug purchases and worked with confidential informants, court records say.
It all began in June 2024. Records say an investigative group with the Drug Enforcement Administration came into contact with an informant who had purchased drugs from a St. Louis man name Christopher Taylor, 35, court records say.
On June 17, the informant arranged to buy an ounce of cocaine from Taylor for $1,400, records show. Shortly after that, Taylor texted a man named Stanford “Stan†Times, 36. Investigators suspected Times was providing the cocaine, according to the new records, part of Taylor’s and Times’ cases.
Federal authorities gave the informant money to buy the drugs and a recording device to wear during the interaction. The informant bought the drugs, and did the same thing in July, August and September.
On Nov. 12, agents began wiretapping Taylor’s phone, and their informant arranged to buy more cocaine.
On Nov. 14, investigators followed the informant to Taylor’s home. Meanwhile, they heard Taylor calling Times. He said the informant wanted “one and a half,†court records say.
Taylor got into the informant’s car, and called Times again, records show. They agreed to meet at a home in the 5300 block of Patton Avenue — a few blocks west of Union Boulevard in the city’s Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood.
Taylor pulled over and a silver Ford Taurus, which had a license plate registered to Times but for a different vehicle, pulled up behind it. The informant was given the drugs, court records say.
That same wire tap was still going on Nov. 23 — the day Colin was shot — when someone identified in court documents as “K.A.†arranged to purchase cocaine from Taylor.
They agreed to meet downtown by Whiskey on Washington, on Washington Avenue.
K.A. picked up Taylor, and they drove downtown where Taylor picked up the cocaine, records show.
He then dropped Taylor off at his home in south St. Louis, and merged onto Interstate 55 south — just before the shooting.
K.A. and Taylor were later arrested, court records show. In an interview, Taylor told investigators he was the middleman, and his supplier was Times.
Meanwhile, city police detectives were working their own case.
On Dec. 13, prosecutors charged Garrett Jordan with first-degree murder and other charges in Brown’s death. Days later, they charged Donovan Baucom as well.
Charges said Baucom and Jordan, in the Audi, followed a car onto the highway from a house on Minnesota Avenue and opened fire. Location data from Jordan’s phone, as well as surveillance video from the area, showed him in the Audi during the shooting.
Baucom admitted driving the Audi during the shooting but insisted that Jordan, using a rifle, was the gunman, according to St. Louis police Detective Joseph Corson.
It is unclear how or whether Baucum and Jordan are connected to the larger drug ring. St. Louis police spokeswoman Evita Caldwell on Friday declined to comment on an open case.
Attorneys for Taylor and Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore announces the charges against the suspect in the killing of Colin Brown on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters. Authorities arrested Garrett Jordan and charged him with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, three counts of armed criminal action and unlawfully using a weapon.
