Police seek community cooperation after 2 St. Paul shootings in 24 hours
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The St. Paul Police department is now asking for the public’s help as it searches for a second shooting suspect in less than 24 hours.
Police made an arrest in a shooting that occurred Friday afternoon, to which they credit good investigative work along with the help of witnesses and the community.
Saturday, police are hoping witnesses from an early morning shooting can lead them to another arrest.
Saturday morning’s was the ninth shooting in St. Paul in 2019.
Friday afternoon’s shooting
Friday afternoon, police say one person was shot while sitting in their car in a parking lot on the 400 block of Maryland Avenue.
With help from witnesses, police were able to arrest a 27-year-old male they believe to be the shooter.
Saturday morning’s shooting
Now, police are hoping witnesses will help them find a second suspect from Saturday morning’s incident.
“There was more people out there than just one person who was willing to talk to us,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, of the St. Paul Police Department. “And we need those people to come to us, work with us, so we can hold the person that’s responsible for this crime.”
According to police, the calls started coming in around 2 a.m. Saturday for shots fired on the 900 block of University Avenue West.
Officers responded to the parking lot of Johnny Baby’s where they found one man who appeared to have been shot. The man died on the scene.
The shooter fled.
“We’re looking for that personal interaction,” Ernster added. “What happened out there that led to this. We’ll take anybody’s call.”
Police say this is not the first time they have been called to Johnny Baby’s. In the last year, there have been 358 calls for service there. 220 of them were initiated by officers who were hoping to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
“Everybody wants a safe city and we’re going to work as hard as we can to make sure it’s safe, but we need the city to work with us,” Ernster said.
The sister of the victim in Saturday morning’s shooting said her brother was a nice, goofy guy that never caused problems. She and police hope they’re able to bring his killer to justice.
Officers say the two shootings are not connected.