A 78-year-old retired bus driver who was stabbed to death in an apparently random attack by a teenager wearing a clown costume may have been on his way to make one of his regular surprise visits to his older sister when he was killed, according to his devastated family.
John Wesley Allen was found dead Monday night in East St. Louis, Illinois, after what Illinois State Police described as “a random attack by a suspect wearing a clown outfit.”
A 15-year-old boy has been charged in connection with Allen’s death, and authorities said there was no known previous connection between the teenager and the victim.
Allen’s family now believes the retired Metro Transit bus driver may have been traveling to see his 82-year-old sister, Delores Fowler.
The location where Allen was found is near a bus stop he frequently used when making unannounced visits to Fowler, according to NBC News.
“He’d never make an appointment. He’d just call me and say, ‘Are you at home?’” Fowler recalled.
“Then I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ll come get you at the MetroLink station or the bus stop,’” she added.
Family members said they had previously worried about Allen traveling alone on public transportation because of his age.
But Allen enjoyed getting out of his retirement community and spending time with other people.
“He was a very friendly person. He would talk to anybody. He just loved people,” Fowler said.
Allen spent nearly two decades working as a bus driver for Metro Transit in St. Louis.
He began driving for the agency in 1977 and retired in 1994, according to Metro Transit and his family.
Allen’s niece, Tania Stanford, similarly remembered her uncle as a generous and outgoing man.
“We were always concerned about him coming over without calling, but he just enjoyed being with his sister,” Stanford said.
“He was a joyful person and he was loved,” she continued. “He was a friendly guy who would do anything. He’d give you the shirt off his back if he could.”
Allen was a widower who lived in a retirement community in nearby St. Louis.
His wife, Yvonne Allen, died in 2019 at the age of 65, according to public records and relatives cited by NBC News.
The circumstances surrounding Allen’s death have made the loss even more difficult for his family.
Loved ones said they initially learned about his death through local television news rather than directly from authorities.
Fowler said friends began asking whether the man being discussed on television could be her brother.
“Friends were asking me, ‘Is this John that we’ve been seeing on local TV news, that somebody killed him?’” Fowler recalled.
She initially convinced herself that the victim was someone else after hearing the name “Wesley Allen” reported.
“That’s when I turned the TV on and they said it was a ‘Wesley Allen’ and I said to myself, ‘Well, that’s not him. His name is John Wesley Allen,’” Fowler said.
Authorities have provided limited additional information about what allegedly led to the deadly encounter.
Illinois State Police is leading the investigation after East St. Louis police referred inquiries about the case to the state agency.
A state police spokesperson declined to provide additional comment Friday, according to NBC News.
It was also unclear whether an attorney had been appointed or retained to represent the 15-year-old suspect.
Because the accused is a juvenile, the source did not identify him.
Allen’s family, meanwhile, is calling for the teenager to face the case as an adult.
“We want him tried as an adult,” Fowler said. “He took a person’s life for no reason.”
