Roseville homicide suspect in custody; shelter-in-place order canceled
ROSEVILLE, Minn. (FOX 9) - A 17-year-old suspect is in custody, one family member is dead, and four others are hurt, according to the Roseville Police Department.
Police say they received a call of an assault in progress on the 100 block of Ryan Avenue West around 10:23 a.m. Tuesday. When officers arrived at the scene they found one person dead, two with serious injuries, and two more victims with minor injuries. The suspect, related to all the victims, had fled the house.
Ramsey County issued a shelter-in-place order. Roseville Police says while the aim of the alert was for it to only be received by residents of the surrounding neighborhood, it instead went out to people across the Twin Cities metro.
The two victims with serious injuries were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, while the two with less serious injures were interviewed by police on the scene.
Police say a tipster who received the shelter-in-place notification alerted police to the suspect's whereabouts. The 17-year-old was taken into custody on Como Avenue near the Minnesota Fairgrounds.
The Roseville Police Department tweeted at 11:29 a.m. that the homicide suspect was taken into custody and the shelter-in-place order is canceled.
Police stressed in a news conference at the scene of the homicide that they are still working to determine what led up to the attack. They confirmed that all involved were related, but did not elaborate on exactly how.
Additionally, police confirmed the suspect did not use a firearm during the attack, but would not elaborate further.
Issues with the Shelter-in-Place Alert
In a release regarding the alert going out to a larger swath of people than expected, Ramsey County said, "The message was intended for mobile devices in a small section of Roseville. Ramsey County staff programmed the message to be sent via cell towers covering the area between Larpenteur Avenue and Highway 36 and Snelling Avenue and Victoria Street. For reasons not known at this time, the Wireless Emergency Alert system pushed the message to a significantly broader area, and mobile phones across Ramsey County and nearby communities received the alert."
The original story from Tuesday morning is below.
A 17-year-old homicide suspect is apparently at-large, according to a shelter-in-place alert sent to people's phones in the Twin Cities on Tuesday morning.
People in Ramsey, Hennepin and Dakota counties got the alert. However, it apparently wasn't intended to go to everyone – with the incident happening in Roseville, according to reports. A second alert was sent out later saying the shelter in place is only for Roseville in the area of Highway 36 and Snelling to Larpenteur and Victoria.
The first shelter in place alert sent Tuesday morning.
The Mendota Heights Police Department posted on Facebook to say there is "No threat in Dakota County. There is a barricaded suspect in Ramsey County and the alert was accidently sent to everyone and their brother."
The second shelter in place alert sent Tuesday morning.
"We just got the alert at the PD and it is the first we are hearing about it. We will try and find out what is going on. Standby," the police department said.
New Brighton Public Safety also said the alert does not affect New Brighton, adding it's happening in Roseville, in the area of County Road B and Lexington Avenue.
This is a developing story.