Aniya Cook had a scholarship to MSU when she was fatally shot in July.
Fewer people know about the murder of 18-year-old Aniya Cook just weeks earlier. But those who read Bill McClellan's haunting column in the Post-Dispatch on August 26 will remember.
And they'll be pleased to learn that someone has finally been charged for the crime.
Cook was a National Honors Student who graduated from Imagine College Prep with a scholarship to Missouri State University.
She was active in her church, Greater Paradise Missionary Baptist Church.
She was also dating a guy, Anthony Bobo, whom her parents found unsavory. In the wee hours of July 31, the couple was having a conversation in a parked car on the 5200 block of Highland Avenue. Apparently, Bobo was distraught about a fatal shooting that had taken place earlier that night on the same block.
At about 1 am, according to the probable cause statement, several individuals walked up and fired multiple shots into the car.
Cook was hit in the face and died from her injuries a few days later.
Bobo wasn't injured. He fled town.
Yesterday, the circuit attorney was finally able to charge Richard Charles Reynolds with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal actions.
Reynolds is a 25-year-old from the 4400 block of Strodtman Place, according to the probable cause statement.
Back in August, McClellan wrote:
Aniya's parents organized a candlelight vigil in her honor at a park near their apartment. More than 200 people attended. Many of her former teachers were there.... [Her mother] Rochelle called the local television stations, but none covered the vigil. Neither did this newspaper. The church was packed for her funeral.All Daily RFT wrote about the murder was just a little blurb based on a police incident summary.
Hopefully, some justice will now be done for Aniya Cook.
