ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – A murder charge was filed Thursday against a Godfrey, Illinois, man who is believed to have killed his girlfriend earlier that morning and then died following a standoff at a West Alton gas station.

According to the St. Charles County Police Department, police received a service call around 3:15 a.m. Thursday about a shooting in the 1000 block of North Service Road. Just before 4:40 a.m., police claim Clyde E. Young, 28, called dispatchers to report a woman was dead at that location.

Officers found a woman shot to death inside a 2023 Freightliner semi-truck. The vehicle had been leased to Young and he was the registered operator as of Thursday.

The woman was not identified, but Young said the two were in a romantic relationship.

The probable cause statement says Young told police that he and the woman got into an argument the night prior and that he got his shotgun and shot the woman in the head.

Cpl. Barry Bayles, a spokesman for the St. Charles County Police Department, said Young again contacted them and stated he would turn himself in to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, but then changed his mind and said he would surrender to St. Charles authorities.

Bayles said Young was considered a person of interest in the woman’s death, but police applied for arrest warrants on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in order to detain him.

St. Charles County police met Young at the Phillips 66 gas station along Highway 67 in West Alton. Dispatchers said Young told them he had a weapon in his vehicle.

Police claim that while officers were discussing the matter with Young, he went to his truck and shots were fired. Police did not say who fired the shots. Young was pronounced dead at the scene.

During the standoff in West Alton, authorities blocked traffic to both the Lewis and Clark bridges on Highway 67 as a precaution for drivers.