Kenneth Covington

A St. Louis man kicked out of a North County bar after a brawl last Christmas Eve shot three men on the bar's parking lot, killing one of them, charges say. Jermel Xavier Williams, 31, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault. The shooting killed Kenneth Covington in the 11200 block of West Florissant Avenue on Dec. 24, 2023. Covington was 33. Bond was set at $1 million cash in the St. Louis County case. Williams lives in the 7500 block of South Broadway in the Patch neighborhood of St. Louis. Williams already has a murder case pending in St. Louis city. He is one of two men charged with killing a man and injuring a woman on the Eads Bridge on Jan. 28. In the St. Louis County case, prosecutors allege that Williams was in a bar fight. Police have two witnesses who saw Williams in a fight in the bar with Covington. Inside the bar, none of the people in the fight had a weapon. They were kicked out, and the shots were fired moments later in the parking lot. At least three weapons were fired that night, police said. Covington and two others were shot. Covington died of his injuries. Williams was arrested in St. Louis with two firearms linked to the shooting, police said. Covington lived in the 300 block of Crawford Road in the Glasgow Village area of North County.