Cortez Clark cuffed for the July murder of Jawon Cooper marks a major turning point in a high-profile St. Louis homicide case. The 37-year-old suspect was taken into custody on July 27, 2026, by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in connection with the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Jawon Cooper on July 17, 2025, in Walnut Park West. The Circuit Attorney’s Office officially charged Clark with First-Degree Murder and Armed Criminal Action, making him the fourth suspect formally charged in this year-long investigation.
St. Louis’ Crime Chime – Weekly Whirlwind of Woes: 37-Year-Old Cortez Clark Charged in Jawon Cooper Slaying—Now Facing Life Without Parole as the Law Strikes Back!
Walnut Park West: The Final Count
A summer night in July, twenty-five, Jawon Cooper didn’t make it out alive. At twenty-seven years, a life cut short in the street, Now the law is working to make the circle complete.
Walnut Park West, where the sirens ring, A year goes by, but justice has a sting. Three were already down, booked in the system tight, Now a fourth name is pulled right into the light.
Cortez Clark, thirty-seven, picked up on the block, Jul’ twenty-six, twenty-twenty-six—cuffed in the lock. First-Degree Murder, Armed Criminal Action on the sheet, Facing heavy time for what went down in the heat…