Man police believe was shooter charged in west Springfield shooting that left teen dead
Prosecutors have charged a Springfield man they believe was the shooter in an incident in April that left a teen dead and one other person injured.
Xavier N. Moore, 21, was charged April 25 with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, shooting at a vehicle and three counts of armed criminal action. All six charges are felonies and the first two both carry maximum penalties of life in prison.
Many details of the shooting were laid out in a probable cause statement used to charge a second person in the case earlier in April.
Police arrived at the intersection of Calhoun Street and Forest Avenue around 7 p.m. on April 17 after witnesses heard shots fired. They discovered a vehicle with two occupants, one of whom, Lavelle Rose, 18, of East St. Louis, Illinois, was deceased.
The other person in the vehicle was taken to a local hospital.
Officers canvassed the neighborhood collecting surveillance and doorbell camera footage in an effort to identify suspects. Both footage and residents near the intersection identified a white truck. One witness went outside briefly to look at the truck, and once inside heard about ten gun shots.
The witness told police he looked outside after hearing the shots, and saw the passenger side door of the white truck close before the truck left the scene. He went to an SUV that was still on the scene and found a female victim screaming for help.
Another witness in the neighborhood told police he had seen a Black male wearing white jeans, a black sweatshirt and a mask covering part of his face, walking in the area. He said the man kept his hands in his sweatshirt and looked at the witness as he walked by.
"(The witness) stated that based on the look given by the male, (he) believed the male was suspicious and armed," the statement says.
The witness said he later heard gunfire and then saw the man at the intersection before he ran out of sight.
When police spoke to the surviving victim of the shooting, she said they were on the way to the store when a white truck blocked their path. She described a man in the same clothing get out of the truck and start shooting at the vehicle she was in. She said the man then got back in the truck before it drove off.
Using a license plate camera system, police identified the plate and eventually tracked it to Justin Bartels, 21, of St. Louis. Through further investigation with the help of St. Louis police, officers located Bartels in a different vehicle in Springfield.
Police said Bartels eventually told them he was the driver of the vehicle but not the shooter.
Based on that information, prosecutors have charged Bartels with second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. Both the murder and assault charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison, which in Missouri equals 30 years.
After further investigation, police determined that the shooter could be Moore. They reviewed surveillance video from neighbors near Moore's Springfield home and identified both Moore and Bartels in multiple videos, according to court documents. Police had contacted Moore at that home for something prior to the shooting, according to a probable cause statement.
Police allegedly found a handgun at Bartels' home that matched the shell casings found at the scene of the shooting.
When Greene County prosecutors filed charges against Moore, it was believed he had fled out of state with his girlfriend and that both had deleted their social media accounts and turned off their cell phones.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield man charged in murder that left teen dead this month
