Suspect charged in shooting death of a Shiloh man on a MetroLink commuter train

A 23-year-old man has been charged in the slaying of Turyan S. Austell Jr. of Shiloh, who was shot to death Tuesday on a MetroLink commuter train in Illinois, authorities announced Friday afternoon.

Jarell M. Anderson of North Park Drive, East St. Louis is charged with murder/intent to kill or injure, according to the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis. Anderson is being held in jail with bond set at $2 million.

Anderson was arrested in St. Louis County Friday afternoon and is awaiting extradition to St. Clair County.

Investigators announced the arrest at a news conference at the St. Clair County Jail.

Austell, 23, of Yorkshire Lane, Shiloh, was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, according to St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr.

The Major Case Squad was activated to assist the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation. Sgt. Justin Biggs of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department led the Major Case Squad investigation of this case

A release issued by the Major Case Squad states that sheriff’s deputies were sent to the Jackie Joyner-Kersee MetroLink train station in East St. Louis to investigate reports of shots fired at 5:44 a.m. They received additional reports of a male gunshot victim at the nearby Washington Park MetroLink train station. Deputies found a man there with multiple gunshot wounds, and he was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Austell was on a MetroLink train leaving the Jackie Joyner-Kersee MetroLink train station when he was shot, police said.

Biggs declined to comment on a motive for the shooting. He said the investigation is continuing but there are not any additional suspects at this time.

“This was not a random act of violence,” said Kevin Scott, the general manager of security for the organization that oversees MetroLink. “These two individuals, based on the Major Case Squad statements, were familiar with each other.”

Scott said there are 15 incidents per 100,000 boardings on MetroLink, “So it’s far less than 1%.”

“It is very hard to predict from a security standpoint or a law enforcement standpoint where you might have an impulse act of violence in the heat of the moment,” Scott said.

“We are very saddened by this occurrence,” he said. “We move millions of people a year on our transportation system and we do so very effectively, but from time to time we’ve had to deal with these issues.”

MetroLink security

The two MetroLink stations involved in Tuesday’s shooting are scheduled to be renovated with new security gates and 8-fencing, Scott said.

Along with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Washington Park stations, the renovations will be done at the Emerson Park and College stations in the metro-east. This is the first phase of six.

The first phase of the project will will be bid next Tuesday and is expected to be finished next spring.

Eventually, the work will be done on the 34 other stations on the MetroLink system and is scheduled to be finished by 2025, Scott said.

MetroLink announced earlier this year the program will cost $52 million.

As part of the security upgrades, Scott said the number of surveillance cameras used in the entire Metro bus and train system will be increased from 900 to 1,600.

And it was this camera system that helped the 19 investigators on the Major Case Squad establish a “person of interest early on” in their work, Biggs said in a statement.

Investigators, along with the assistance from the public, were able to identify that person of interest “and located evidence critical to the investigation,” he said.

Biggs declined to comment on the nature of this evidence.

The Major Case Squad investigated over 90 leads in this case.

Biggs said the investigators expressed their condolences to Austell’s family and friends.

He described the shooting as an “unfortunate, tragic and senseless crime.”