Former Speedway worker charged in St. Paul hostage situation
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The woman who took four people hostage inside a Speedway gas station in St. Paul on Tuesday has been charged.
Kanisha Deon Wiggins, 31, of St. Paul, was charged Thursday with four counts of kidnapping in connection to Tuesday's hostage situation in St. Paul. Wiggins had her first court appearance Thursday morning.
According to the criminal complaint, a man called 911 to report that his girlfriend was being held at gunpoint by an unknown person inside the Speedway at 846 Johnson Parkway in St. Paul.
When officers arrived to the scene around 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, they saw Wiggins "agitated, pacing back and forth, and gesturing with the gun at her side" in the common area of the store. Officers could also see a "frightened" hostage in the cashier's area.
Wiggins told police she would shoot the hostages if they wouldn't allow her to "speak to her father in federal prison" as they attempted to negotiate with her over the phone and public address system, the complaint states. She claimed her father was in jail and falsely imprisoned. She said she needed to talk to him and "this was the only way to make that happen," the hostages told police.
The complaint states Wiggins held four people hostage all in their 30s – three Speedway employees and a Pepsi employee who was loading inventory in the cooler. Wiggins had walked in and asked a former coworker for a hug. She told the employee she needed help, so they went to the back office where Wiggins pulled out a gun and ordered the employee to get rid of the customers.
Police responded to a hostage situation at a Speedway gas station located near East 7th Street and Johnson Parkway in the Parkway - Greenbrier neighborhood of St. Paul.
After the employee told the 7-10 customers to leave the store, Wiggins ordered the remaining people in the store to go behind the cash register area and the door be locked. The hostages told police that Wiggins wanted to live stream the events on Facebook, but her phone was in the car. So she sent one of the employees to get the phone.
Once released, the female employee "sprinted like I've never sprinted in my life" to police instead of getting Wiggins' phone. Her boyfriend was the one who called police, as she was able to text him before Wiggins forced her behind the counter.
When the employee ran to police, Wiggins "became frustrated" and fired a round from her pistol, not aimed at any person, and ordered one of the hostages to lay down as if they had been shot, hostages told police. Officers "forced their way into the locked business" after they heard the gunshot and recovered the other hostages. They found Wiggins inside a storage room and recovered a handgun with a 9mm round in the chamber. The hostages were held for about an hour.
Police said Wiggins asked for a lawyer and did not participate in the interview after she was arrested. Her mother told police her daughter is "unstable." The police did not provide any information regarding the location or status Wiggins' father.