St. Louis Man Charged in Murder Near City Museum Downtown

Justin Ledoux allegedly held Sandro Bajric while others beat him and then shot him in the back

Dec 8, 2023 at 5:00 am

Sandro Bajric was killed on North 15th Street. GOOGLE EARTH SCREENSHOT

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A 27-year-old St. Louis man is now facing charges for killing another man two years ago near the City Museum downtown.

Around 4 a.m. on November 20, 2021, officers found Sandro Bajric, 28, on North 15th Street between Lucas Avenue and Delmar Boulevard, dead of a single gunshot wound through his back. Bajric, who was in a Honda Odyssey van, had a bruised abdomen and wounds on his knees, in addition to the gunshot wound that killed him. The shot appeared to have been fired through the back of the driver's side seat.

Police say that surveillance video shows Justin Markee Ledoux in the lead up to and during the killing of Bajric. One video shows Ledoux holding a handgun in the same area as the van with a large group of other people moments prior to the shooting. That video goes on to show Ledoux grab Bajric and hold him in the back of the van as another person repeatedly hits him. A few moments later, police say, Bajric got into the van's driver seat and began to flee, but Ledoux fired into the back of the vehicle, killing him.

Ledoux has now been charged with murder, kidnapping, assault and other charges . At the time of the shooting, Ledoux was on probation in St. Louis County for burglary and felony domestic assault.

It is not clear why more than two years passed between the death of Bajric and the charges being filed yesterday. Earlier this week, prior to announcing his bid to run for a full term as St. Louis circuit attorney, Gabe Gore touted his office charging more cases than his predecessor, Kim Gardner, as well as clearing the so-called backlog of cases that had built up under her tenure.

Ledoux was just one of at least eight people charged yesterday in the city for crimes that occurred more than six months ago, prior to Gore taking office.

Shawn Finger, 29, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, resisting arrest and drug possession, which allegedly occurred in May of 2021. Tavon Walters, 35, was charged with unlawful gun possession stemming from an incident in January 2022.

In a somewhat unusual move, two people were also charged yesterday for driving while intoxicated, a charge not exactly commonplace in the city. One person faces a DWI stemming from a March incident in which he was driving the wrong way on a highway, got in a crash and was found to have two beers in his vehicle and a third in his jacket pocket. Another DWI charge was filed against a man who was pulled over in Dutchtown in April and had a blunt in his car's ashtray. When asked how high he was, he told the officer that on a scale of one to ten he was a "nine."