EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A manhunt for the gunmen accused of shooting seven people in East St. Louis ended early Friday with the arrests of three suspects in the basement of a partly demolished building.
The Illinois State Police said seven people, including a child, were shot about 4 p.m. Thursday in the area of Martin Luther King Drive and North Sixth Street. They were hospitalized, but their conditions weren't released.
Police swarmed the area in the search for the shooters. More than 10 hours later, at 2:30 a.m. Friday, officers about a block from the crime scene arrested three people in a building in the 600 block of St. Louis Avenue.
No details have been released about the suspects or a possible motivation for the shooting.
The crime scene Thursday included a MetroLink crossing near Martin Luther King Drive, where a vehicle collided with a train and disrupted service. It wasn't clear what the suspects' connection was to the vehicle.
MetroLink officials said it appeared that the vehicle drove around the crossing gates into the path of an oncoming train in East St. Louis. The crash was part of the investigation.
The crash disrupted MetroLink service between the Fifth and Missouri and Emerson Park stations throughout the evening. MetroLink was warning of delays for riders of 20 minutes or more in that area. Passengers were being transported by bus shuttles around the two affected stations, said Patti Beck, a communications official with Bi-State, which operates MetroLink.
A crowd of onlookers gathered to watch as troopers, St. Clair County sheriff's deputies, police vehicles, SWAT team members and armored personnel vehicles amassed at multiple sites in East St. Louis.
The shooting was just the latest in several incidents this week. A 3-year-old was hit by a stray bullet late Sunday while she slept in her home, and later declared brain-dead. A 16-year-old was killed in a shooting early Tuesday.
