St. Petersburg man charged with murder in roommate’s 2021 death
A St. Petersburg man was charged with second-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the death of his roommate in 2021.
Keondre Flournoy, 28, was already in the Pinellas County Jail on unrelated charges when the murder charge was added against him, St. Petersburg police said.
Police said Flournoy shot Qareeb Muhammad, 47, on Dec. 29, 2021, after the two got into a fight in their apartment.
Muhammad’s body was later found in a vacant lot on the 2100 block of 17th Avenue South.
When asked why it took two years to charge Flournoy with murder, St. Petersburg police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez said: “We work with the State Attorney’s Office and when they feel like they need more evidence, they’ll say to investigators, ‘I need x, y and z.’ So you know, it’s a process. You have to put a lot of evidence together to find probable cause.”
Flournoy was already jailed on multiple charges, including making or possessing a destructive device, throwing a deadly missile into a building, felony battery and drug charges.
Some of the charges are related to an incident in May 2022 in which Flournoy was accused of throwing a cinder block through a window. Police also found a beer bottle that had been made into a Molotov cocktail on the scene. Flournoy’s fingerprints were found on the bottle, according to court records. That same month, Flournoy attacked a woman, threw her to the ground, hit her in the head and threatened her with a gun, records state.
Flournoy has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is awaiting trial, records show.
