Quarrel leads to two shooting deaths on I-64

By Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

06/21/2010

EAST ST. LOUIS — As blood ran down her arm, Ashley Oliver ran for her life.

The Cahokia woman, 25, staggered through stalled traffic about 2 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 64 just east of the Poplar Street Bridge.

Ashley Oliver

"She was running to cars saying 'Please help me! Please help me!" said Scott Cross, 38, of East St. Louis. "We were going to help until we saw that gun."

Cross said he watched as a gunman caught up with and fatally shot Oliver in the middle lane of the highway and then killed himself.

"We didn't know what to do," said Haaneyfan MacDonald, 45, a passenger in Cross' minivan. "I couldn't believe it."

Police identified the gunman as Oliver's boyfriend, Tommie Hill, 25, of East St. Louis. He had been fighting with her in her red Oldsmobile Alero.

Oliver had already been shot inside the Alero or near it when she fled and began banging on nearby cars for help.

"She was running for her life," said Illinois State Police Sgt. Dave Wasmuth. "He chased her down and killed her."

Oliver was pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Police said Hill's 7-year-old daughter was in the Alero and witnessed the shooting but was not hurt. Wasmuth said later that the girl was in her mother's care.

For a while, as traffic crawled by in the passing lane, Hill's body lay in the middle eastbound lane of the highway. Police later shut down a section of I-64, where it converges with Interstate 70 and Interstate 55, for about three hours.

The semiautomatic handgun used by Hill was seized by police.

Hill's mother, Sharon Cameron, came to the scene Sunday. She said the couple had had a rocky relationship for at least four years. She said her son was unemployed and had been depressed recently.

"There's just too much killing going on," said Cameron, 41, of East St. Louis. "People are killing each other and don't have no reason."

Hill's uncle, Tyrone Cameron, said he had spoken to his nephew about an hour before the shooting and they had wished each other a Happy Father's Day.

Tyrone Cameron said Hill and Oliver "had their ups and downs, but I never thought it would come to this."

From: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/C151854D439DC81086257749000FEC4A?OpenDocument