Wayne B. Kemp Jr.

How they died

Suicide

Wayne B. Kemp Jr. reportedly shot himself after a 15-mile police chase. At about 5:30 p.m., deputies had responded to a domestic disturbance in Belleville, where Kemp allegedly showed a weapon and fled north on Old Collinsville Road in a Geo Metro. Kemp drove for about three miles with the deputy in pursuit, turned west through a restaurant parking lot onto Lincoln Trail, went north on IL-157, and then west onto I-64. State police joined the chase, which continued into East St. Louis, where Kemp took the Baugh Avenue exit, ran a police roadblock, crashed through a fence, went down an embankment, and hit a support for the MetroLink bridge. Kemp was found dead in his car from what St. Clair County Coroner Rick Stone said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his right temple.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Wayne B. Kemp Jr., and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources