Hundreds of people attend the funeral on Thursday for Alexus Purtty.
(Huy Richard Mach/P-D)

*BERKELEY* — Men in black suits prepared the antique horse-drawn hearse. It was almost time.

Inside the church, the pastor stirred the crowd with a passionate eulogy. A woman handed out paper towels to people sweating in the packed pews and jammed aisles. There were not enough funeral programs to go around.

A red and gold casket rested at the front of King of Kings Pentecostal Church. It carried Alexus Purtty, 13. She was fatally stabbed outside her home in St. Louis a week ago. A 12-year-old boy is charged with her murder.

This was her home-going Thursday. Her funeral.

"She's gone!" wailed a girl about Alexus' age, as she was carried out into the church hallway. An older woman tried to calm her.

Just outside the glass door, two men screwed silver lampposts onto the hearse. Two white horses were tethered to the front.

Alexus was killed after a confrontation with her 12-year-old neighbor as he taunted her family one night, according to police. The boy, who is not being identified because of his age, could become the youngest person in the St. Louis area ever to face murder charges as an adult. A decision on whether he will be charged as an adult is expected in September.

Alexus was going into the eighth grade at Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School. She was an honor student. She talked of being an attorney one day.

"God has blessed us to know Alexus," Bishop Lewis Johnson told the crowd.

Another man asked everyone to say together, "We love you, Alexus."

The response reverberated along the stone walls.

The casket was opened. A long line formed for the viewing. People walked outside and waited to see Alexus off.

"It's just messed up how we all got to come together like this," said Tanya Vantreece, who grew up with Alexus' mother, Alecia Kimble.

The flowers were carried out. Family followed. A woman in pink who had fainted was carried to a limousine, a paramedic close behind.

The red and gold casket appeared at the church door. Conversations halted. The crowd parted, creating a path to the horse-drawn hearse. Ten men held onto the casket's brass railings and loaded it inside. The door shut.

"We love you, Lexy!" a woman shouted. "We love you, baby!"

The crowd gathered closer to the hearse, with its intricate black woodwork and large spoke wheels. Its glass walls allowed people to see the red and gold casket inside.

Many pulled out cameras.

"It is so very beautiful," said Traneise Rhodes, who held her 1-year-old son, Shawn, as she took a photo on her cell phone.

The horses stirred. The hearse began to move. The cemetery was five miles away. The young girl's journey would soon be over.

Three suspects are being sought for the shooting death of a man in a makeshift recording studio in DeKalb County early Friday morning.

Police officials said the three killers showed up at an apartment in the Sun Valley complex at 1470 Bouldercrest Road, just south of I-20, about 2 a.m. They soon fled brandishing handguns, after they shot a man to death in a studio on the second floor.

Police spokesman Michael Payne said several other people, including a 2-year-old, were inside the apartment when the shooting happened. He said no one else was hurt. "We're interviewing them to try and figure out why it happened," Payne added.

Payne also said police believe the crime was not random, but that the victim was probably targeted. He added there was no indication of any robbery.

Police have not released any descriptions of the three suspects nor the name of the victim.  

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