Daniel Stahl

A teen who was hit and killed by a car last weekend was visiting St. Louis to attend the "No Kings" anti-Trump protests downtown, his family said Tuesday. Daniel "Dee Dee" Stahl, 16, was walking with his friend and his friend's parents a little after 1 a.m. Sunday when a fight broke out in the 1500 block of Washington Avenue and a car drove onto the sidewalk, its passenger shooting a gun at the same time, police said. The car hit and killed Daniel. Daniel's aunt, Chrystal Shaul, said on Tuesday that Daniel lived in Springfield, Missouri, with his mom and two of his four siblings. He was the youngest of five. "It’s so hard to describe him because we still want him to be here," Shaul told the Post-Dispatch. "The main thing that we want coming from all of this is that he was an innocent kid in all of this. This should have never happened to him. He did not deserve this." His friend's mom was the 29-year-old woman who police said was hit by the car — and shot in the same incident — but survived, Shaul said. "This was yet another senseless act of violence that has no place in our community," police spokesman Mitch McCoy said. "And we are going to do everything we can to investigate and hold individuals accountable. We grieve with Daniel's family." On Saturday, hours before Daniel's death, police were called to the 1500 block of Washington. An online flyer advertised St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red and actor and comedian Druski holding auditions at 4 p.m. at the Ely Walker lofts, a troubled condo building controlled by controversial landlords Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty. On Saturday afternoon, police got reports of a large group of people gathered at the lofts, blocking the street. "We attempted to disperse as many people as we could," said McCoy, the police spokesman. Then, hours later, just before 1:20 a.m., police said they received multiple calls for fights and shots fired at the same location. Police said a crowd was there for an "unsanctioned rooftop loft party." People were downstairs in the entryway letting individuals in and out of the building, McCoy said. At some point, an argument broke out on whether to allow in some people who were armed. The fight spilled from the sidewalk into the street, McCoy said, and both groups fired shots. Then a burgundy car drove onto the sidewalk, with the passenger of the vehicle firing shots. That car hit Daniel and a woman, then drove off, police said. The woman was also shot. On Monday, authorities said 26-year-old George McDonald III was the driver of the car, and charged him with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He was in custody Tuesday without bond. McDonald's father said his son was trying to defend a woman he was with, and a group of people then began beating him, and that the teen who died was part of that group. Eight hours before McDonald was booked into jail, he posted on Facebook that he had been jumped and was glad that he and a friend were OK. He said his car was shot at. A video circulating online shows parts of a fight on the sidewalk outside the lofts. It shows about a dozen youths ganging up on a man and woman in front of the loft building. A few pull both to the ground, pull the man by his shirt and punch and stomp on his head. Shaul said police told Daniel's family that Daniel was not armed and had not been involved in the fight that broke out before he was hit. McCoy on Tuesday called Daniel an "innocent bystander." McCoy said police were still investigating "the exact role" of the 29-year-old woman — Daniel's friend's mother, Shaul said — also hit by the car. Shaul said on Tuesday that Daniel sometimes came to St. Louis with his friend to visit the city. The friend's family had lived here, she said. Daniel had found some trouble in his teen years, she said, and had been sent to juvenile detention a few times, but he'd hit a turning point recently. "He had completely changed his life around," Shaul said. "He was a really good kid. He had such a bright smile. He was always joking with people, always laughing and always smiling." Daniel had taken to mowing yards to make money recently, she said. "We don’t even get to watch him graduate," she said.