Man ‘hearing voices’ shoots at people in Target parking lot: charges
A sign for a Target store. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
(FOX 9) - A man who admitted to police he's begun hearing voices in the past year opened fire at three men in a St. Paul Target parking lot Friday – an act he claimed was defending a wife who says she doesn’t know him.
Fa Lee, 37, of St. Paul, is charged with three counts each of second-degree attempted murder and drive-by shooting for his role in what police say was a random shooting.
According to charges, surveillance video showed three men standing and sitting on the south side of the building near a cart return rack at the Target located at 1744 Suburban Ave.
One of the men gathered carts when a 2004 Toyota Highlander pulled into the lot directly across from them and began shooting. According to police, holding a handgun with both hands, Lee fired several rounds at the men as they ran for cover. Officers recovered 12 spent 9mm casings in the area.
Police later located the Highlander about half a mile from the Target near its registered address at 395 Van Dyke St. Officers arrested Lee after he came out of the address and said, "Y’all came for me," charges said. At the time, he had a loaded Glock handgun in his waistband.
Lee told police his, "wife got stabbed in the chest and he could feel the pain," saying that, "he was lying on the couch when he felt the pain in his chest – he felt like his heart was bleeding," charging documents said.
With his "wife’s voice in his head", he shot them, believing they were the people that stabbed her, the criminal complaint said.
After further investigation, police learned Lee wasn’t actually married but believed he was dating a female employee at the Target location, charges said. When officers located the employee on vacation in Chicago, she said she did not know him.
Police executed a search warrant and recovered Lee’s Smith and Wesson MP15 rifle and three handgun magazines, charges said. He has a permit to carry a firearm out of Ramsey County.