Minneapolis and St. Paul record first homicides of 2022

By Crime Watch MN, January 9, 2022, Updated

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have each recorded their first homicides of the new year.

On Saturday, January 8 at about 9:43 p.m., there was a report of shots fired near 42nd and 11th Avenue South. A subsequent police dispatch aired that a vehicle had crashed in the same area and that CPR had been started on a male. Police arrived to find the male had apparently been shot, according to dispatch audio. Police subsequently aired that they located the apparent shooting scene on the 4300 block of 11th Avenue South where they located spent shell casings.

The Minneapolis Police Department sent out a press release a short time later stating that an adult male had died and the case was being treated as a homicide. The victim has not yet been identified by the Medical Examiner and no suspect information was made available.

On Sunday afternoon, January 9, St. Paul police responded to a report of a stabbing on the 100 block of Larpenteur Avenue West. According to a later press release, SPPD stated they found a “disturbing scene” with a female in her 40s dead of an apparent stab wound to the chest.

Dispatch audio indicated that a possible suspect had been taken into custody before 4:30 p.m. on the 100 block of East Mt. Airy Street. The male was reportedly “semi-conscious” when police found him outdoors at the location. Neither the victim or suspect have been officially identified yet.

Minneapolis ended 2021 with 97 homicides tying the homicide record set in the “Murderapolis” year of 1995.

The 2021 total includes the officer-involved shooting of Winston Boogie Smith, 32, atop an Uptown Minneapolis parking garage on June 3. The shooting of Smith by agents acting on behalf of a US Marshals fugitive task force was ruled justified, and no officers were charged in that case.

The year-end total also includes the death of Leneal Frazier, 40, who was an uninvolved party killed when a Minneapolis police squad struck his vehicle during the pursuit of carjacking suspects on July 6 at 41st and Lyndale Avenue North. Officer Brian Cummings has been charged with manslaughter in that case. A jury trial is scheduled for June.

St. Paul ended 2021 with 38 homicides, which exceeded the record of 34 set in 1992 and 2020.

We will continue to track Minneapolis and St. Paul homicides online. You can bookmark and follow the interactive maps at the links below. Information for incidents is updated as it develops:

Minneapolis https://bit.ly/MplsHomicides2022

St. Paul https://bit.ly/StPaulHomicides2022

**UPDATE: Late Sunday night, St. Paul police named Maurice Angelo McClinton Smith, 38, of St. Paul as the arrested party in connection to Sunday’s fatal stabbing.

Police said McClinton Smith was found by officers outside a home a couple miles from the scene and was treated at Regions Hospital for exposure. He was subsequently brought to police headquarters and was arrested.

McClinton Smith has three prior felony convictions including theft, prohibited person in possession of teargas or stun gun, and violation of a no contact order. The weapons and no contact order convictions were in March 2019. Court records indicate McClinton Smith was allowed to serve the sentences of 21 and 27 months in the two cases concurrently (at the same time).

Minnesota only requires offenders to serve two-thirds of their sentence incarcerated, which means that McClinton Smith was free after serving 18 months for the two convictions.

We will continue to follow developments.

— -

We’re volunteers. Your financial support places value on our time spent researching and reporting news you won’t get from mainstream media. We are committed to keeping the information we produce free from paywalls, but it’s not free to produce. In addition to placing value on our time, your support can help us offset real costs for equipment, scanners, software, electronic storage and costs sometimes associated with obtaining public data or records. You can support us with a sustaining monthly pledge on Patreon, or with a donation to our tip jar at paypal.me/CrimeWatchMpls. Or you can click HERE for other ways to donate. Thank you.

Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes original content news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. We often report what other media won’t. Read About Us.