At 8:33 p.m. on April 13, 1993, a 911 call was made to the Cape Girardeau Police Department reporting shots being fired outside a house at 911 Bloomfield Road in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Responding officers found the body of Cammeron Allyn Childs, 20, lying at the top of wooden steps leading into the house. Childs had been shot four times, once in the chest, once in the abdomen, and twice in the arm.

Body of Cammeron Childs at top of steps

The Major Case Squad was activated.

Investigators were able to identify and locate three eye-witnesses to the shooting. A 22-year-old man had been the roommate of Childs. He reported that he and Childs had been entertaining two young women, ages 20 and 21, when Michael O. Smith, Jr., 21, came to the door. Smith asked Childs to come outside. When Patterson and Childs descended the steps, they found Michael O. Smith standing at the bottom of the stairs with Johnnie E. Smith, 21. Michael O. Smith asked Childs, "How come you shot at me the other day?" Childs said, "I didn’t shoot at you. I don’t know what you’re talking about." Michael O. Smith pulled a gun and repeatedly shot Childs. He then turned the gun on Child’s roommate and was obviously considering shooting him, but must have felt that Child’s roommate, who had his own problems with the law, would not reveal his identity to the police. Michael O. Smith and Johnie E. Smith then ran away.

Both young women confirmed the account given by Childs’ roommate. They heard the shooting, although they didn’t see it.

Further investigation revealed that Childs had been affiliated with the "Bloods" gang and had moved recently to Cape Girardeau to help distribute crack cocaine brought to Cape from Los Angeles. His corpse had the tattoo "BSV" on its arm. The tattoo stands for "Blood Stone Villains," the name of the gang.

The BSV, or Blood Stone Villains, tattoo.

Witnesses reported that Michael O. Smith was known to wear the colors of the "Crips" gang, and that Childs and Smith had been "throwing gang signs" at each other recently, and that Childs had reportedly shot at Smith a few days before the killing.

Johnnie E. Smith was never charged with any crime since it could not be proven that he aided or abetted in the shooting in any way. He had merely been present when it happened.

The murder weapon was ultimately located in the possession of a friend of Michael O. Smith’s. Ballistics proved that the .357 caliber Taurus Magnum revolver was the gun used to kill Cammeron A. Childs.

On November 7, 1994, Michael O. Smith pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter for killing Cammeron Childs, and received a sentence of 15 years in prison, to run consecutively to a 5-year sentence on a sexual abuse case, for which his parole was being revoked.