St. Louis Man Tyrone Little Shot Cousin In Head After Family Reunion

A St. Louis man will serve 15 years in prison after a family reunion gone bad ended with Tyrone Little shooting one of his cousins in the head. Little confessed to the crime and struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid a lengthier sentence, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Here’s what happened at this not-so-happy family gathering, according to the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.

In June 22, 2012, the extended family of 40-year-old Tyrone Little was gathering for a reunion, at which a fish fry was to be the featured attraction. For some reason, Little wanted to bring a firearm to the otherwise joyous family gathering in St. Louis.

His family members specifically forbade him from taking a gun to the family union. They ordered him to leave the weapon at his own home. But the St. Louis man, who had already been enjoying a few pre-fish-fry drinks, would not comply.

At that point, his nephew took the gun away from him. Apparently, being separated from his weapon caused him no end of irritation. At the fish fry itself, he kept on hitting the bottle, perhaps sulking over the temporary loss of his beloved handgun.

After the reunion ended that evening, family members drove Little back to his St. Louis home. He grew agitated and demanded that they give him back his gun. Perhaps unwisely under the circumstances, they complied, handing him back the weapon.

As soon as he got his gun back, the first thing Little did was open fire on the vehicle containing his own family members. Prosecutors say he fired the gun five times. One of the bullets hit his own cousin in the head.

Fortunately, Little’s cousin survived the St. Louis gun assault. Doctors could not fully remove the bullet fragments from his head, however, so he is still walking around with a souvenir of the 2012 family reunion lodged in his skull, AP reports.

Little was charged with two counts of of first-degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful use of a weapon/shooting into a motor vehicle. He made a deal with City of St. Louis prosecutors to admit that he shot his cousin and pleaded guilty to all of the charges.

Under the deal, though he received four separate sentences totaling 36 years, he may serve the terms concurrently, meaning Little will serve just one, 15-year term for the St. Louis family reunion shooting.