A black mother who killed her two young children before driving striking a man and his young child with her vehicle was charged with two counts of first degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action and two counts of murder

Yokeia Smith, 25, was arrested in St Louis, Missouri waving around a large shotgun after stepping out of her car on the side of a main road. She was charged in East St Louis with two first degree murders. Smith was arrested after she got out of her car and sat down on the ground with a shotgun. Police were called to the shooting at a multi-unit building and arrived to find two of Smith's three children dead. Yokela Smith (4) and Levada Brown (5) had been shot, while a third child (8) was also in the apartment but was unharmed and is now in a relative's custody. Autopsies have determined that the two children were both shot once in the head at close range with a shotgun and died instantly of the devastating injuries. Smith then got into her car before running over a father and child. The 42-year-old man and his son (3) were taken to hospital.