Doorbell camera footage from a residential neighborhood in East St. Louis, Illinois shows a 15-year-old in a clown costume walking up to front doors Monday evening, knocking, and telling whoever answers: "I have a gift for you."

Hours later, a 78-year-old man named John Wesley Allen Sr. was found dead in the roadway with multiple stab wounds.

The teenager was taken into custody Monday night. Officers with the East St. Louis Police Department responded to the scene shortly after 10 p.m. Monday, finding Allen's body.

The suspect's identity has not been released because of his age. What has been released is the video — doorbell cameras from multiple homes captured the kid in costume, carrying a knife, moving house to house with that line about a gift. Residents in the neighborhood reported seeing him. Some of them filmed it. https://rumble.com/v7dud2i-creepy-teen-clown-seen-going-door-to-door-before-deadly-illinois-attack.html

We don't know yet what connected Allen to the suspect, if anything. We don't know if Allen opened his door to a knock or was caught outside. What we do know is that a 15-year-old planned this. That's not impulsive teen violence. You don't put on a costume, grab a knife, rehearse a line, and go house to house on a whim. That's premeditation dressed up — literally — as a joke. The clown outfit wasn't random. It was designed to confuse people long enough to get close.

And it worked.

East St. Louis already ranks among the most dangerous cities per capita in the country. Residents there aren't strangers to violent crime. But there's a difference between the violence people have learned to navigate — the kind that follows patterns, happens in known places, targets known people — and whatever this was. A costumed teenager with a scripted line and a blade isn't a pattern anyone prepares for. It's the kind of thing that makes people stop answering the door entirely.