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Cult Tied to 6 People Who Vanished From Berkeley Spread on TikTok | St. Louis

Published

9 months ago

January 11, 2024

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click to enlarge Rashad Jamal, shown in a screen grab from TikTok.

Six people who disappeared in August after sharing a house in Berkeley, Missouri, had ties to an alleged cult run by a social media influencer currently in prison for child molestation.

The missing six include four women, two from St. Louis: Mikayla Thompson, 25, and Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 36, as well as Wickerson’s 3-year-old daughter, Malaiyah, and another child.

Prior to their disappearance, those three St. Louisans were living in the Berkeley house with three others: 30-year-old Naaman Williams of Washington, D.C.; Gerrielle German, 27, of Mississippi, and German’s 2-year-old daughter, Ashton Williams.

The investigation into the missing women has made national news this week. Berkeley Police were concerned about the strange goings-on at the house not far from St. Louis Lambert International Airport where the six people lived. The women could be seen in the backyard worshiping the sun, sometimes naked.

Major Steve Runge with Berkeley PD told the Post-Dispatch that the women’s disappearances were “extremely troubling” to their families.

“The level of disconnect these cult members have demonstrated with friends and family members is unfathomable,” he said.

The six women lived in the single-story vinyl-sided house in Berkeley before relocating to a hotel in Florissant. After the women left the hotel, authorities searched the Berkeley house, finding no signs of foul play but ample evidence, including food still in the microwave, that indicated it had been left in a hurry. It was then that a search of the women’s social media activity revealed them to all be avid followers of Rashad Jamal.

Jamal has been described in various media outlets as a cult leader and a social media prophet. On his own Twitter account he describes himself as an “Author/Poet /Revolutionary/Luminous Being” based out of Chicago. He operates a website, the University Of Cosmic Intelligence, where for $333.33 a year subscribers can access lectures and other materials.

On TikTok, videos with the hashtag #rashadjamal have more than 278 million views and feature Jamal talking about everything from dreams to menstrual cycles to dead people not actually staying in the ground. Often these are soundtracked with hooks from classic hip-hop songs like Luniz ‘s “I Got 5 On It.”

Vice covered Jamal in a series of articles in 2022 with a focus on his followers running afoul of the law, including two being accused of murder in Alabama.

Vice describes the ideology Jamal espouses as “a mixture of esoteric spirituality, Black empowerment, polygamy and conspiracy theories,” with the latter including that some professional basketball players are robots and that the government controls the weather via rainbows, which he calls “stargates.” Jamal’s teachings also to some degree dovetail with the sovereign citizen movement, which does not recognize the authority of the federal government and has historically had a presence in St. Louis.

Jamal himself was sentenced in Georgia to 22 years in prison for child molestation and child cruelty. The mother of the child he molested told Vice that Jamal’s followers consistently harassed her as the case against him worked its way through the courts.

Jamal posted to Twitter that his trial started August 14. The six people who disappeared from St. Louis were last seen on August 13.

Despite being in prison, Jamal is still active across social media. An Instagram story posted in the past day to his 90,000 followers promotes a new lecture available through his website.

He’s also continued to opine on global events, speaking about the Israel-Hamas war, which started almost a month after he was sentenced to prison, in a series of TikTok videos featuring his jail house audio. He appears to be generally pro-Hamas, saying that are misunderstood like the character Magento from the X-men. “Iran is backed by extraterrestrial races fighting against Israel,” he adds.

A week ago he posted another lecture to his University of Cosmic Intelligence YouTube channel that sounded like it was being recorded over a prison phone. In that audio he blames his current woes on “the alleged mother of my child.”

“She came together with the powers that be to set me up,” he says. “The powers that be didn’t like me because I’m on YouTube and I’m on social media all day, raising the frequency of the planet.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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