Two teens charged in fatal shootings of five family members in Illinois | Illinois

Two teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the deaths of five members of an Illinois family who were shot in three different locations.

The district attorney’s office said a 16-year-old boy will be tried as an adult, while the case against a 15-year-old girl will begin in juvenile court before possible transfer to St. Clair County criminal court.

Five people were killed and two others were injured in a “targeted mass shooting” Sunday specifically in East St Louis, an Illinois city across the Mississippi river from St. Louis, police said. Troopers stopped a vehicle at a state park on Sunday and arrested the teens, Illinois State Police Chief Brendan Kelly said.

Court documents do not provide a motive. But the 15-year-old’s father, Marcus May, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the girl was upset with family members and planned the attacks with her boyfriend, Ja’ymeir Davis.

May said she lost her nephew, two stepchildren, her mother and sister. They were 74, 49, 25, 24 and 21 years old.

Davis was charged with murder and seven other crimes. It is not yet known whether a lawyer is available to comment on the allegations. A court hearing was expected.

The shootings occurred mostly over the weekend, but one deceased victim, May’s sister Cherie May, had been shot days earlier, according to the court filing.