Suspect arrested in gas station killings

EAST ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Police say they've arrested a suspect in the shooting deaths of three women at a gas station in East St. Louis, Mo.

A man, whose name had yet to be released, was arrested Sunday in the deaths of Raykel Gathing, 26, Jaimaca McDaniel, 24 and Tanika Harvey, 26, three longtime friends from East St. Louis, police said.

The three women were seated in their car at a gas pump with three of Gathing and McDaniel's children when a gunman approached and opened fire. The children were not injured.

Relatives of the women told the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch) they believed the shooter was an ex-boyfriend of McDaniel's who refused to leave McDaniel's alone.

"He told people that if he couldn't have her, nobody could," McDaniel's mother, Emma McDaniel said.