Boy Shot Dead On His Birthday Just 1 Hour After Posting “Glad I Made It To See 17” On Facebook

Armond Latimore, a St. Louis teenager posted online that he was glad to make it to his 17th birthday after all he’d been through. Just over an hour later, he was fatally shot in the head.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the young boy was shot outside a restaurant about 1 p.m. Saturday — his birthday,
He was pronounced dead at a hospital. No arrests have been made. Homicide detectives are investigating.

His mother, Chandra Payne, said she had gone to a store when she got the news.
“He told me that he wanted ice cream,” Payne said. “I went to Save A Lot and three minutes later I received the call.”

Latimore’s post to Facebook earlier Saturday celebrated just getting to his birthday. It read: “Thru all the (expletive) I den been thru I’m just glad I can say I made it to see 17.”

Latimore was a sophomore at Vashon High School. After the shooting, Payne said she found a paper her son wrote for school about a bully who wouldn’t stop harassing him. She said Latimore never told her or other relatives about any problem he was having with anyone.

Payne said that since the shooting, concerned people have pointed out to her photos on Latimore’s Facebook page where he is seen with a lot of cash and posing with a gun. She said her son didn’t own a gun, and that the money belonged to someone else.

She said her son was a good kid.

“He was always a helping-hand child,” she said. “He would cut grass, wash your car or sell water. He loved music and loved money and always made it the right way.”

Harvey Collins, 60, saw Latimore two hours before his death when the teen helped move Collins’ daughter into her dorm at Harris-Stowe State University.
“I can’t believe that a couple hours later he was dead,” Collins said. “That’s a crying shame.”