Police said an argument outside a Cass Avenue smoke shop led to multiple people opening fire Saturday afternoon.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Two men were killed and three other people were wounded Saturday after an argument outside a smoke shop in the Carr Square neighborhood turned into a burst of gunfire, St. Louis police said.
The shooting drew officers to the 1300 block of Cass Avenue at about 3:45 p.m., according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Investigators said five people were shot in all. Two men were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third victim was taken to a hospital in critical but stable condition. Police later learned that two other wounded people had gone to hospitals in private vehicles. The shooting added to concern in a small north St. Louis neighborhood just north of downtown, where city census figures put the population at 2,236.
Police said the violence began outside the smoke shop as a large group of people gathered there Saturday afternoon. The department’s preliminary account said some kind of argument broke out and then more than one person started shooting. That early detail shaped the investigation from the start, suggesting detectives were looking at an exchange of gunfire rather than a single shooter firing into a crowd.
When officers arrived, they found three victims at the scene, police said. Two of those men were already beyond help and were declared dead there. A third man was rushed for treatment and was listed in critical but stable condition, according to the department’s public update. Police then learned that two other people who had been hit were no longer at the scene because they had been taken away in private vehicles before officers gathered a full account of the wounded.
By early evening, police said at least one person had been detained in connection with the shooting. Even so, investigators said they believed more suspects were involved. Homicide detectives were called in, an indication that the inquiry had moved beyond the first patrol response and into a broader effort to sort out who fired, who was struck and how the confrontation unfolded. As of the latest public update, authorities had not released the names of the dead or the injured, had not announced charges and had not said what started the argument.
The location sits in Carr Square, a compact neighborhood bounded by Cass Avenue on the north edge and just west of the downtown core. City data show the area had 2,236 residents in the 2020 census. The neighborhood has also been part of a broader city redevelopment focus in recent years, a reminder that the shooting happened in a place where families, businesses and public agencies are all trying to shape daily life and investment. Saturday’s violence disrupted that routine in the middle of the afternoon, outside a storefront where police said a crowd had gathered.
In practical terms, the next phase of the case is likely to turn on evidence gathered in the hours after the shooting. Detectives would be expected to separate witnesses, review any available camera footage from the block, trace shell casings and determine whether the detained person was a shooter, a witness or someone else tied to the confrontation. Police had not publicly answered those questions in their first reports. They also had not said whether all five people who were shot were part of the argument, were bystanders or were struck as gunfire spread through the crowd.
The public picture remained narrow Saturday night: a crowd outside a smoke shop, an argument, multiple shooters, five people shot and two men dead. Even with one detention, police made clear the case was not closed. The department’s statement that more suspects were believed to be involved pointed to a scene that likely included confusion, overlapping witness accounts and fast-moving decisions by people who fled or sought medical help on their own.
Author note: Last updated March 22, 2026.