Charges: Police use DNA from facemask to make arrest in St. Paul train platform killing
Police investigate at the light rail platform on Friday morning. (FOX 9)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - DNA from a facemask helped police make an arrest over the weekend of the man suspected in a deadly shooting on a light-rail train platform in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.
Thirty-three-year-old Shawn Tillman is charged with murder for the deadly shooting early Friday morning on the Green Line Station platform.
In charges, police say Tillman is seen on surveillance video pulling a gun on the victim, identified Monday as 37-year-old Demitri Ellis-Strong, and opening fire. The charges state Ellis-Strong fell to the ground and held his hands up to shield himself as Tillman gunned him down. A witness said Tillman and the victim had an ongoing problem leading up to the shooting.
Ellis-Strong suffered six gunshot wounds and died from bleeding out, the medical examiner later determined.
While reviewing the surveillance video, the charges state that one officer believed the shooter was Tillman, an ex-convict who was wanted in two indecent exposure investigations prior to the shooting. Police were able to recover a face covering from the ground that had been dropped by the shooter.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension tested the facemask and found a DNA mixture for three individuals, with investigators saying the major DNA profile matched Tillman's sample that's on record for his past conviction.
Tillman was arrested on Saturday for the shooting. He is charged with murder in the second degree.