Alyssa Wilson

Alyssa Wilson, 17, a senior at McCluer North High School in Florissant, was killed in a shooting and car crash on Interstate 170, school officials said. Kaylan Holloway, the school's principal, said Alyssa was a student athlete, an office aide at the school and looking forward to heading to college after graduating. "News like this is heartbreaking, and it is difficult to find the right words to express the sadness we feel as a school community," Holloway wrote. "In this time of loss, please keep Alyssa, her family and all who loved her in your thoughts and hearts." Police said the incident took place just after 7 p.m. on southbound I-170 in Overland, between Midland Boulevard and St. Charles Rock Road. Police said Alyssa was taken to a hospital and died there. Authorities, in charging a married couple for the shooting, said that Willie Herndon, 42, and his wife Taiya Herndon, 45, stopped on the side of the highway. Willie fired a single shot, killing 17-year-old Alyssa Wilson as she drove by. Investigators said when they searched the couple's Caseyville hotel room, they found a rifle with a scope and "notebooks that contained handwritten notes of various license plates and other descriptions of vehicles and police personnel that Herndon believed was following him." Robert Hickman, a teacher who had taken in Alyssa to live with his family and called himself her father, on Monday described her death as a senseless act. Alyssa was driving to Boo at the Zoo to meet a friend when she was killed. Hickman attended the news conference at the St. Louis County courthouse with several family members, many of whom were wearing T-shirts with Princess Tiana on them, Alyssa's favorite Disney character. Hickman said he’s a teacher at a local high school and met Alyssa when she became his student as a freshman. Three years later, Alyssa had an issue with her family life and moved in with Hickman's family in March. She instantly became part of the family, he said. Alyssa wanted to study criminal justice at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and Hickman said he had just helped her finish her financial aid forms the morning of the shooting. The family was also about to take their first vacation with Alyssa to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The trip was in celebration of her 18th birthday, Hickman’s wedding anniversary and another daughter’s 16th birthday. He said his family and Alyssa’s biological sisters have struggled to cope with her death. “She was a kid full of life,” Hickman said. “She was just very energetic. It was funny because she called herself the boss. She thought that — for the life that she had prior to coming to us — she was very full of herself, very self-conscious. She knew what she wanted to do and what she wanted to be, and every day she took strides to do that.”