A teenager wearing a clown costume was taken into custody by Illinois Stace Police on Tuesday and is accused of killing a man in East St. Louis. The victim, whose body was found in a roadway by investigators at around 10:02 p.m. on Monday, has been identified as 78-year-old John Wesley Allen. A coroner says that Allen passed away due to multiple stab wounds. The unnamed suspect was caught earlier in the week scaring a resident in footage from a doorbell Ring camera posted on social media.
Teenage suspect was caught on a Ring camera scaring resident
Ring doorbell video taken on August 3 at approximately 9:11 p.m. by Lee Palmer that was posted on Facebook shows the suspect in glasses and dressed in a red and black clown outfit walking up the door.
The teenager stares into the camera and says “I’m looking for you” before walking away from the front porch. Palmer told First Alert 4 that her mother was home alone at the time and that the suspect lingered around the property for several minutes and even went behind the home.
She feared that the teenager was “going to kill everybody in the house” and couldn’t believe that he was dressed in a clown costume. “Why out of all the houses, why come to this house?” Palmer said.
Investigators from the Illinois State Police are working to find any relevant video of the suspect, including additional footage of the teenager on social media.
Palmer advised other residents to purchase a home security camera for their own safety.
“Best thing I can do is keep being safe,” she said. “And if you don’t have a Ring camera, you better get one.”
The police have not yet provided details on the killing of John Wesley Allen or why the suspect was in the neighborhood.
