Mother and daughter on way home from Drake concert get struck and killed by speeding driver. St. Louis, USA, 14 February 2024

ST. LOUIS — A Kirkwood man accused of running a red light and hitting and killing two tourists downtown early Wednesday has been released from custody on bail.

Monte Henderson, 22, posted 10% of his $200,000 bond on Friday, court records show. He had been charged Thursday with two counts each of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the deaths of Laticha Bracero, 42, and her daughter Alyssa Cordova, 21, after police say he blew through a red light on Olive Street and hit them in a crosswalk after midnight Wednesday.

Bracero and Cordova were in town from Chicago attending a Drake concert at Enterprise Center Tuesday evening.

Police said Henderson was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee more than 70 mph on Olive Street when he ran a stoplight at 18th Street in the Downtown West neighborhood, hitting multiple vehicles and the two pedestrians.

Judge Annette Llewellyn set bond Thursday at $200,000 or 10% cash. Henderson has no prior felonies, and Judge Llewellyn did not consider him a threat to society or a flight risk.

But St. Louis police Officer Matthew Wieczorek, in the probable cause statement he filed in the case Thursday, said he did believe Henderson is a danger to the community and would not appear on a summons.

Llewellyn, a former public defender, was one of former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's first hires when she took office and headed the prosecutor's diversion programs for a month before former Gov. Eric Greitens appointed her circuit judge in 2018.

While traffic fatalities in the city have fallen back toward pre-pandemic averages, the crash Wednesday again refocused attention on the reckless driving incidents that have put city leaders under pressure to respond to pedestrian and motorist safety. And Henderson's release may again raise questions about pretrial detention policies in St. Louis Circuit Court.

A year ago, a car crash that injured a teenage girl in town for a volleyball tournament — an annual event that had downtown St. Louis streets and sidewalks packed with young athletes and their parents on Saturday — amplified calls for Gardner to resign. Her critics pointed to the driver's many violations of his bond for other criminal charges at the time of the crash, questioning why prosecutors hadn't moved to have him jailed.

Meanwhile, aldermen and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones a year ago approved a $40 million package for traffic-calming infrastructure, but those projects are still in the planning stages. And St. Louis police, which are grappling with some 300 vacant positions, made about half as many traffic stops in 2021 as they did in 2009 — back when there were also just half as many traffic deaths on the city's streets.

“While the City has made significant investments in traffic and pedestrian infrastructure, reckless driving continues to be an urgent and immediate issue that directly affects the safety and wellbeing of residents and visitors alike,” Jones said in a statement the day after the crash on Olive Street.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/kirkwood-man-out-on-bond-after-charges-of-killing-2-in-downtown-st-louis-crash/article_4647e126-cdd4-11ee-8ef4-3b218a6f7a1a.html