ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A carjacking victim recounts the scary moments she experienced when a teenager forced her out of her vehicle at gunpoint. She’s sharing her story to warn others as prosecutors charged a Hazelwood man with a similar crime.
“And I just thought that any sudden move [and] he was going to end my life,” Precious Jones said.
“I didn’t know if he thought that I was going to reach for a gun, too, so it was very scary because it happened so fast. And it was like, he really [has] a gun pointed it at me.”
Police never found her attacker. Jones, who works in the community to end violence, said she still has nightmares.
“It was unbelievable. Cause it’s me, of all people; I don’t harm anybody,” she said. “And, you know, you want my car that bad that you can pull a gun on me? So, it was different.”
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to 119 carjackings in 2023; that number is down to 77 reported incidents. In St. Louis County last year, police responded to 45 carjackings and 37 thus far in 2024.
Police responded to a carjacking just last Thursday in north St. Louis County. Donovan Epps of Hazelwood was charged with that crime.
According to the St. Louis County Police Department’s probable cause statement, officers were around South New Florissant Road and Interstate 270 just after 7:05 p.m. Thursday when they saw a black passenger vehicle that had been reported stolen in an armed carjacking in St. Louis City early that day.
Police tried to pull Epps over, but he accelerated and attempted to get away. Officers gave chase on Interstate 270, with Epps reaching speeds of 110 miles per hour. He left the interstate at St. Charles Rock Road and struck a traffic signal, rendering the vehicle inoperable.