St. Paul sees two homicides within hours Thursday to Friday
By Crime Watch MN, April 1, 2022, updated
The city of St. Paul tallied two more homicides Thursday night and into early Friday morning bringing the city up to 13 homicides for the year so far.
In the first incident, police were dispatched around 9:15 p.m. to the 400 block of Maryland Avenue West on a report of shots fired outside a convenience store in Saint Paul’s North End neighborhood.
Upon arrival, police found two males in their 20s with gunshot wounds — one lying in the street, another in a vehicle a short distance away, according to police dispatch audio at the time.
At the time, police dispatch audio indicated that the man on the ground was found with a gun in his hand. A later update stated that two parties may have been shooting at each other.
Police rendered immediate aid to the injured parties, but one was declared deceased at the scene, the other was transported to Regions Hospital for surgery and his current condition is unknown.
The decedent was identified Friday afternoon by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner as Dion Lamarr Ford Jr., 21, of St. Paul, Minnesota.
UPDATE: St. Paul police posted an update that an arrest had been made in the death of Ford. They said Xavion Tyrece Bell, 21, of St. Paul, has been charged with second-degree murder by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.
The second incident was reported about 1:40 a.m. when police were dispatched to the 1200 block of Hewitt Avenue on a report of a shooting.
Upon arrival, police found a 56-year-old male waiting down the block who told them a man had kicked in his front door, entered the home and threatened his daughter, with whom the intruder had a relationship, according to a statement released by SPPD Friday morning.
Inside the dwelling, police found a man in his 30s who’d been shot multiple times. St Paul Fire medics were called in, and they pronounced the man dead without transporting him to a hospital.
The resident of the home was brought to St. Paul police headquarters, questioned and was released. SPPD said the incident continues to be investigated and that the case “will be submitted to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for charging considerations.” At this time, no arrests have been made.
As of this writing, the victim in the second homicide had not been officially identified.
St. Paul, which has a population of just over 310,000, is nearly keeping pace on homicides with its sister city of Minneapolis which has a population of about 430,000. Minneapolis this week recorded its 17th homicide of the year.
By about this same time last year, St. Paul had logged eight homicides in the city. St. Paul ended 2021 with thirty-eight homicides.
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