Following a trio of fatal street shootings that took place so fast even top police officials expressed shock, St. Paul’s police chief announced a five-step plan to combat violence — starting with plenty of extra hours required of the city’s investigators.

“What happened in the span of nine hours yesterday and into this morning was unlike anything, anything — and I mean anything — that I have seen in my entire 30 years” on the force, Chief Todd Axtell said during a Tuesday press conference. “It was shocking, it was outrageous, and it was an anomaly.”

Killed in the shootings were a good Samaritan, an 18-year-old and a man driven to the hospital in a bullet-riddled car.

Calling the shootings “unusual and unacceptable,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said that “putting an end to these cycles of violence is our highest priority.”

Carter said he would support not only investments in the city’s police department, but “work to ensure safe, productive activities for our youth and opportunities for our families to make a living. … (and) to continue the discussion at the state Capitol about why it seems so easy for the wrong people to get their hands on a gun.”

As for immediate action, Axtell said his department will deploy additional patrols by calling back to work officers who would otherwise be off, and beefing up homicide and gang investigations with a task force made up of investigators from different units throughout the department.

The department also will use new technology to accelerate reviews of surveillance video, and work with state and community partners to look at gun violence. The technology has nothing to do with facial recognition software, a spokesman later clarified.

Officials also will increase community engagement using students and reserves in neighborhoods most frequently impacted by gun violence, Axtell said.

“This is a full department mobilization and it does not come without a cost,” Axtell said, adding that employees are “already working around the clock.”

NIGHT OF CHAOS

The series of fatal shootings started Monday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., when 18-year-old Apple Valley resident Raumez Ross was fatally shot while walking down a busy street in broad daylight in the city’s North End.

Police said someone fired a gun at Ross from across Rice Street, near Winnipeg Avenue.

Then, at 10 p.m. in the city’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood, a good Samaritan heard a car crash near his home, went to see if he could help and lost his life.

Javier Sanmiguel Yanez, 31, who had four young children, died within sight of his Edgerton Street home. He had been shot in the head.

Finally, just after midnight, 27-year-old Nickey Taylor was driven in a private vehicle, sporting multiple bullet holes, to Regions Hospital. Police determined he was shot at Marion Street and University Avenue; he was immediately pronounced dead, leaving behind a 5-year-old girl.

In addition to the back-to-back-to-back homicides, police responded to seven confirmed reports of shots fired — with no one injured — in various parts of the city Monday and Tuesday.

Police are still investigating whether any of the incidents are connected.

“It’s certainly possible,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. “It’s rare to see this type of violence in such a short period of time, so it’s possible they’re connected, but until we find the people responsible, we won’t know for sure.”

A QUESTION OF STRENGTH

Several North End residents turned up at Tuesday’s press conference to listen.

Afterwards, they said they had confidence in the police chief but wondered whether he would be given enough resources, noting a question to the mayor about how many sworn officers he was including in next year’s proposed budget.

“He (Mayor Carter) didn’t really answer the question, and that’s frustrating for those of us that live there,” said Lynn Connolly, 66, who has lived in the North End her entire life.

The department’s current authorized strength this year is 635 officers, with 608 now working. Carter’s 2020 proposed budget would decrease that authorized strength to 630 officers.

During the press conference, Carter was asked whether he would reconsider raising the proposed strength back to 635.

He answered that if the department actually hires the 630 officers it would be authorized for, it would still be the highest sworn strength in the department’s history.

The department reached a sworn strength of 628 in December, a police spokesman said.

But, Carter added at the press conference, “We can’t arrest our way out of these challenges. We have to continue to invest in the three-dimensional type of approaches that can help us not only to respond to crime after it happens, but prevent and reduce it from happening in the first place.”

Hearing that, Connolly added, “I agree that there has to be a mid-range plan and a long-term plan, but there also has to be a ‘right now’ action.”

Along those lines, Axtell announced Tuesday afternoon that investigators had arrested two 15-year-old males for the Rice Street shooting, one for murder and one for aiding and abetting murder.

Both were arrested at the LivINN Hotel on Century Avenue in Maplewood.

FEDERAL ASSISTANCE

St. Paul Police have reported 19 homicides this year, with 17 of them gun-related. There have also been 113 shootings this year, compared to 90 by the end of August 2018.

On Tuesday, the federal Department of Justice announced that they were awarding St. Paul a $750,000 grant for a “Crime Gun Intelligence Center,” a data-driven approach to tracking guns used in violent crimes.

Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

Javier Sanmiguel Yanez and his wife were getting ready for bed Monday night when they heard a car crash outside their St. Paul home.

Sanmiguel Yanez went to investigate, while his wife called 911.

Moments later, Kayla Sanmiguel Yanez heard gunshots and a woman’s scream. Then she saw her husband, a father of four, fall to the ground.

A neighbor held her back as she tried to run to him. Then more gunfire rang out.

Police found Javier Sanmiguel Yanez with a gunshot to his head behind a Ford Escape at the intersection of Case Avenue and Edgerton Street around 10 p.m. Monday.

The 31-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, and people who knew him were reeling over the loss of a good man.

The lone occupant of the Ford Escape, Lionel Keejuan Eaton, was charged Tuesday with Sanmiguel Yanez’s murder.

The events were outlined in a criminal complaint charging the 27-year-old Roseville man with one count of second-degree murder committed during a drive-by shooting, and a second count of third-degree murder.

DEFENDANT FIRED FROM TRUNK OF HATCHBACK, CHARGES SAY

Eaton holed up in the back of his vehicle after the multi-vehicle crash in which he rear-ended another vehicle exiting an alley onto southbound Edgerton Street, authorities say.

The impact caused a female driver to strike several other parked cars in the area, including Sanmiguel Yanez’s van.

The woman, who was uninjured, told police that the crash caused several residents to come outside to try and help, Sanmiguel Yanez among them.

The group went to check on the condition of the driver of the Escape, but it was difficult to see inside with airbags deployed.

A resident near the scene told police the gunfire rang out as someone tried to open the hatch after several people had knocked on the Escape’s windows to no avail.

As the group scattered, he saw his neighbor, Sanmiguel Yanez on the ground.

DEFENDANT’S MOM: SON WAS ACTING ‘PARANOID AND ERRATIC’ BEFORE SHOOTING

Eaton’s mother showed up at the scene after the shooting, and told police that her son had been acting “paranoid and erratic” lately and voiced concerns that someone was trying to kill him, the complaint said.

She was on the phone with him trying to determine his location so she could get him to a hospital when she said the phone “suddenly went silent.”

In an interview with police after the shooting, Eaton told officers that he was “rammed” by another vehicle and that he hit his head and then thought he heard gunshots, the complaint said.

He said he was panicked and scared, so he fired the shots, adding that he hadn’t been aiming at any target at the time, according to the complaint. He went on to tell officers that he doesn’t own a gun and that someone had given him the one used in Monday’s shooting earlier that night.

NEIGHBOR HELD BACK WIFE AS SHE RAN TO HIM

Dan Thompson, a neighbor of Sanmiguel Yanez, ran out of his house after hearing the gunfire Monday night.

He saw Sanmiguel Yanez wounded, and said he could tell he “was gone immediately.”

Thompson stopped Kayla Sanmiguel Yanez as she tried to run to him because he was fearful of the shooter’s next moves. Thompson held her behind another vehicle as the driver started shooting again — Thompson said he heard five to six more shots. The two ducked and police soon arrived.

Thompson said it wasn’t a surprise that Sanmiguel Yanez would run to someone’s aid.

“The world really lost a good man,” said Maya Thompson, Dan’s wife, after the shooting.

Sanmiguel Yanez recently got into boxing and was going to have his first match this weekend, Dan Thompson said.

Owens Peterson Jr., who also was a neighbor, said he used to see Sanmiguel Yanez lifting weights in his yard at about 6 o’clock in the morning.

“He was a good neighbor, always friendly,” Peterson said. “It’s a tragedy and I’m sorry it happened to him.”

REMEMBERED AS DEVOUT FAMILY MAN WITH DEEP FAITH

In addition to his wife, Sanmiguel Yanez left behind four young children.

The couple’s lives seemed centered around family and their faith.

Kayla Sanmiguel Yanez, who used to work for the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, blogged about her family’s faith for the website Mind and Spirit, which describes itself as an online magazine that explores the intersection of psychology and faith.

The couple created a mission statement to guide their family, according to statements they shared in an ebook called Head and Heart: Becoming Spiritual Leaders for your Family.

It reads:

“To be a boldly Catholic family, seeking sanctity before all else, with visible faith, contagious joy, and genuine trust in Jesus Christ.”

Sanmiguel Yanez is quoted in the publication describing the importance of having a guiding statement for one’s family, and the challenge of living up to it.

“There will always be failure. That shouldn’t scare us,” he said. “Falling short helps us grow and acknowledge what we need to work on.”

Sanmiguel Yanez was remembered as a “faith-filled” family man by Karen Laird Tuesday.

Laird, director of marketing and communications for the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, only met Sanmiguel Yanez a handful of times, but knew his wife more closely from the time she worked as an administrative assistant for the seminary.

“He was a lovely, hard-working, faith-filled individual … definitely a wonderful husband and father,” Laird said.

She offered prayers and love to his family on behalf of the seminary.

“We are a community of faith here and know that the Sanmiguels are faith-filled people and we just pray that the promise of the resurrection will sustain them in the days and months ahead,” Laird said.

A relative of Kayla Sanmiguel Yanez reached Tuesday said the family was not ready to comment about the incident.

COURT HEARING SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY

Eaton is expected to make his first appearance on the charges Wednesday morning. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Police found a black Smith and Wesson handgun in “plain sight” of the driver’s seat inside Eaton’s Ford Escape, along with a magazine on the passenger seat and multiple casings near the vehicle’s cargo area, the complaint said.

The shooting is one of three that took place Monday evening into Tuesday.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.

A man was wounded by gunfire Tuesday evening in the same St. Paul block where a shooting took the life of a 22-year-old just four days earlier, police say.

The man suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound to his leg shortly before 6:45 p.m. in the 2100 block of Glenridge Avenue, according to St. Paul police and emergency radio traffic.

On Saturday, 22-year-old Kacey Feiner was shot to death in the same block in the city’s Battle Creek neighborhood. It was not immediately clear whether the two shootings were related and no suspects were in custody, police said.

Tuesday’s shooting came just hours after city officials announced new measures aimed at curbing a recent rash of gun violence in St. Paul, including a trio of fatal shootings in the span of eight hours overnight Monday.

A Minnesota woman whose court records show a history of child neglect and violence has been charged with manslaughter after authorities say she locked her 8-year-old son in a cold garage overnight, leading to his death.

The Brooklyn Park woman was charged Monday in connection with the boy’s death in February 2018. The outside temperature at the time was in the negative single digits.

The cause of the boy’s death was initially listed as undetermined. There were no fresh signs of trauma, but the boy had scars on his back that indicated he had been hit with a belt or cord, along with other scars, according to court records. Toxicology tests showed elevated levels of glucose, consistent with hypothermia.

According to the criminal complaint, the mother called 911 on the morning of Feb. 1, 2018, to report her son was unresponsive. First responders noted his skin was “ice cold,” but he was not frozen. He had urinated in his pants and first responders saw a puddle of frozen liquid in the garage.

The woman told police her son had been sick since Jan. 31, but school officials said he seemed healthy. The woman later denied that the boy was locked in the garage. When police returned with a search warrant days later, the frozen liquid in the garage was gone.

After several months, the boy’s siblings shared information with a foster parent, and one sibling said her mother locked the boy in the garage and brought him inside the next morning.

The investigation into the boy’s death became public in June of 2018, when an 11-year-old girl ran away from the home. She was later found safe more than 20 miles away, but court records revealed that child protection services had been involved with the family for years following reports of abuse, violence and threats.

Since the boy’s death that February, two petitions for protection had been filed, including a request for emergency protection, yet the children were still living with their mother when the girl ran away.

Brooklyn Park police investigating her disappearance arrived at the home to find “concerning living conditions,” including an uncooperative mother and an infestation of rodents and bugs. Police placed the girl and three siblings in protective custody.

The Associated Press is not naming the children or the mother because court records cite sexual abuse. Records show the mother had six children, including the boy who died.

The mother’s record in family court includes reports of neglect and threats of violence. She also has a 2006 criminal conviction for malicious punishment of a child. The father of five of her children did not live in the home but has also been found to neglect the children and threaten them with physical harm, according to court records.

Court records show the children were routinely allowed to live with their mother under protective supervision.

The mother was charged by warrant and was not in custody. An attorney who represented the woman in a 2018 civil commitment case declined to comment.

A man authorities say caused serious injuries to a four-year-old girl when he shot at the child’s father during a dispute in St. Paul last week has been charged with assault.

Isaac Alonzo Cryer and the girl’s father were engaged in a conflict that took place outside a residence on the 300 block of Maria Avenue around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 when the child’s father saw that Cryer had a gun, according to the criminal charges.

The man attempted to drive away, but Cryer started shooting at the vehicle, according to the charges.

When he pulled over, he saw that his daughter was bleeding and the rear window of his Ford Explorer was shattered.

Police who responded to the scene found the four-year-old drifting in and out of consciousness with small lump in the back of her head. She was taken to the hospital, where she has since been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and intracranial bleeding.

A slight protrusion was found in the vehicle’s headrest where the girl’s head had been, which testing later determined to be a “metal object” that had gone almost entirely through the cushion, according to the complaint.

A 36-year-old woman also involved in the dispute received a non-life threatening gunshot wound to her arm during in the incident.

Cryer is charged with five counts of second-degree assault, according to the complaint filed against him Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

The child’s father told police he was at the residence that day to help his sister, who’d been fighting with her roommate. Among the people there were the roommate’s aunt, as well as her son, Cryer.

Cryer and his mother told police a different story about what happened. The 25-year-old Eagan man’s mother said the child’s father had been the aggressor in the incident and that he threatened her and other family members earlier that day. His friend and sister were armed with a Taser and a box cutter the evening of the shooting, according to the mother.

When her son showed up at the scene, she said he clenched his fist “as if he were armed” in order to protect his mother, but that he didn’t have a gun. When the girl’s father drove away, she said he started shooting at her son, not the other way around.

Cryer also denied being the shooter. He said the child’s father had been the one armed with a gun during the incident.

Cryer was convicted of a misdemeanor back in 2016 for possession of a pistol without a permit and petty misdemeanor in 2013 for obstructing the legal process.

He is expected to make his first appearance on the felony charges sometime Wednesday morning. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Family friends set up an online fundraising page for the family of a Good Samaritan who was fatally shot outside his St. Paul home this week while he was checking on an accident victim.

They’ve raised more than $80,000 as of Thursday morning, surpassing their original goal of $50,000.

Javier Sanmiguel Yanez, 31, was fatally shot around 10 p.m. Monday after he ran out to help those in a car accident at Case Avenue and Edgerton Street. He leaves behind his wife, Kayla, and four children — Javier, Emilia, Isabel and Petra.

Sanmiguel Yanez’s family is being helped by a family friend, Zita Larson, a teacher at the St. Agnes Catholic School in Frogtown. Larson has created a GoFundMe fundraising page to help with the funeral and family expenses.

It can be accessed online at tinyurl.com/GoodSamaritanFundraiser. This is the only known valid online fundraising effort at this time.

Donors to the fundraiser expressed their sorrow and sympathy. “Bad things should not happen to people who are doing good,” one donor wrote. “Always keep believing that the helpers will be honored,” wrote another.

A family friend released the following statement on behalf of the Sanmiguel Yanez family Wednesday:

“The Sanmiguel family would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support during this difficult time,” the statement read. “They will greatly miss Javier, a man of deep commitment to his Catholic faith and his family. Helping others came naturally, so it comes as no surprise to those who knew him that Javier died like he lived, selflessly serving others. Thank you for respecting the family’s privacy as they move forward without their beloved son, husband, father and friend.”

The occupant of the crashed Ford Escape, 27-year-old Lionel Keejuan Eaton of Roseville, was charged Tuesday in connection with the fatally shooting.

Sarah Horner contributed to this report.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stabbing a woman and leaving her in a pool of blood in his bathroom earlier last fall.

A Ramsey County District judge sentenced George Dudley Wednesday morning, nearly two months after the 30-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a rape charge against Dudley so long as he agreed to the 15-year sentence, a term slightly longer than the guideline sentence for first-degree assault convictions.

Dudley also was ordered to register as a predatory offender.

The victim in the case told police she had met Dudley at the Metro Transit center on Lake Street in Minneapolis on Nov. 24, bought alcohol with him at a liquor store and joined him at his home in the 1600 block of Van Buren Avenue in St. Paul, according to court documents.

That’s where he raped her and beat her with his closed fists, she said.

Dudley called police around 2 a.m. that night and said a woman he didn’t know was wounded in his bathroom, according to the criminal complaint.

Police found the woman bleeding from several stab wounds to the right side of her head, chin and shoulder. A large, bloody butcher knife was on the kitchen counter.

The woman appeared to have been lying in her blood for a while, court documents say.

She was rushed into surgery and received a blood transfusion while police questioned Dudley and his three roommates.

Prosecutors opted for a plea deal to “spare the victim of having to recount her victimization at trial,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Dudley has a history of violent crimes, including three convictions for domestic assault, two for violating protection orders and one for fifth-degree assault, according to court records.

In one instance, he threatened and choked a past girlfriend, holding his hands around her neck for about 10 seconds.

The man accused of fatally shooting a St. Paul man who rushed to help neighbors involved in a multi-vehicle crash was acting “out of fear for his own safety” when he pulled the trigger, his attorney said Wednesday.

Lionel Eaton’s attorney released the statement after his client made a first appearance on second and third-degree murder charges in the death of Javier Sanmiguel Yanez in Ramsey County District Court.

A judge set bail for the 27-year-old Roseville man at $1 million during the hearing and scheduled his next court appearance for Oct. 4.

Eaton retained Mark Kelly to represent him in his case. His paralegal, Kristi Testa, said Eaton intends to fight the allegations.

She released the following statement on behalf of Kelly:

“Mr. Eaton has no history of any violent behavior, was cooperative with the police, and informed the police that he acted out of fear for his own safety,” Kelly said.

Police found Sanmiguel Yanez lying behind Eaton’s Ford Escape Monday night with a gunshot wound to his head. The 31-year-old married father of four was pronounced dead at the scene.

Neighbors said Sanmiguel Yanez and other residents streamed outside to help those involved in a multi-vehicle crash near Case Avenue and Edgerton Street around 10 p.m. Monday.

As they were attempting to check on the driver of the Escape, which reportedly caused the collision after rear-ending a vehicle exiting an alley, residents noticed Eaton holed up in the back of the vehicle, according to the charges filed against him Tuesday.

At some point, he started firing a gun, and Sanmiguel Yanez was struck by a bullet, according to the criminal charges.

RELATED: 911 transcripts reveal frantic scene at St. Paul good Samaritan shooting

Eaton’s mom told police afterward that she was concerned for her son’s mental health that night. She told police her son had been acting “paranoid and erratic” and voiced concerns  someone was trying to kill him, according to the charges.

She was on the phone with him trying to get his location so she could get him to a hospital when the phone went silent.

Eaton told police someone rammed into him with another vehicle, causing him to hit his head, according to the charges.

Then he said he thought he heard gunshots and hid in his car. He shot from inside the vehicle out, not aimed at any particular target, because he was fearful, according to statements he made to police. He went on to tell officers that he doesn’t own a gun and that someone had given him the one used in Monday’s shooting earlier that night.

Police discovered a black Smith and Wesson handgun in “plain sight” of the driver’s seat inside Eaton’s Ford Escape, according to the charges. A magazine on the passenger seat and multiple casings near the vehicle’s cargo area.

Eaton’s criminal history includes misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor convictions, including one for possession of marijuana earlier this year and another for possession of a pistol without a permit in 2016.

The fatal shooting was one of three that occurred in an eight-hour span in St. Paul Monday and early Tuesday. The city’s mayor and police chief on Tuesday pledged additional patrols and investigation units to quell the gun violence.

A St. Paul man will spend 180 days in jail for accidentally killing his cousin with a gun on Harriet Island last December.

A Ramsey County District judge sentenced Abdirahman Mohamed Adam during a hearing Wednesday morning, where the 22-year-old also received 10 years of probation.

Adam also will need to complete 50 hours of community service centered around educating students about the dangers of using firearms while under the influence of drugs, in addition to several other conditions.

Adams pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree manslaughter this past July.

Before entering his plea, Adams recounted for the judge what happened the night he fatally shot Mohamed Abdi Mohamud last December.

The young men and some of their buddies had gone to Harriet Island to goof around and shoot off a handgun.

Adam fired the gun once, then one of his friends took over and kept firing until the “gun clicked,” Adam recalled during the hearing.

Assuming the gun had been emptied of bullets, Adam decided to play a joke on Mohamud and pointed the gun at him.

When he pulled the trigger, the gun went off.

A single bullet hit Mohamud, 22, in the face. Adam collapsed in shock while his friends rushed Mohamud to Regions Hospital.

Mohamud died a week later, on Dec. 9, 2018.

Adam’s attorney, Michael Colich, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

St. Paul police have released transcripts of two 911 calls made during the fatal shooting of Javier Sanmiguel Yanez on Monday at Case Avenue and Edgerton Street.

The transcripts include the callers as well as background voices during the incident.

Lionel Eaton, a 27-year-old Roseville man, has been charged in connection with Sanmiguel Yanez’s death with one count of second-degree murder committed during a drive-by shooting and a second count of third-degree murder.

Eaton’s attorney said his client was acting “out of fear for his own safety” when he pulled the trigger.

Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson said he will not yet release squad car video of a police shooting that killed a man who livestreamed his chase by officers through Edina and Richfield.

Hutchinson said in a statement Wednesday that releasing video of the shooting or other information before investigators have interviewed witnesses “may jeopardize the thoroughness of the investigation.”

Police fatally shot 30-year-old Brian Quinones in Richfield on Saturday night after they say he failed to stop for a red light in Edina and wouldn’t pull over. The city of Edina says Quinones “confronted officers with a knife.”

Five police officers — three from Richfield and two from Edina — are on standard paid administrative leave. None of the officers were wearing body cameras, but both departments had squad car video.

The fourth-annual Running HOME for Jacob 5K and 11K will take place on Sept. 29 in St. Paul.

The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center organized the race in 2016, the same year the 11-year-old boy’s remains were found on a farm near Paynesville, Minn.

HOME stands for “Hope for Our Missing and Exploited.”

Money raised by Running HOME will be used to support the center’s mission “of ending all forms of child maltreatment through education, training and prevention while advocating for and serving children, adult survivors and communities,” according to a news release.

Jacob was abducted at gunpoint by a masked man on Oct. 22, 1989, near his home in St. Joseph, Minn. Danny Heinrich confessed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis in 2016 to kidnapping and killing the boy.

Running HOME, which will be held at the Lake Phalen Picnic Pavilion in St. Paul, also includes a children’s 1.1K race and family activities.

To register, go to http://bit.ly/RunningHOME.

A 15-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Raumez Ross, 18, on Rice Street in St. Paul on Monday.

The teen’s first court appearance was expected to be Thursday at the Ramsey County Juvenile and Family Justice Center.

Due to the suspect’s age, the court appearance was not open to the public. His identity and other information is not being released.

The teen was also charged with two counts of assault because two people driving on Rice Street were in the line of fire and could have been injured, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Ross’ death was one of three in a span of eight-hours in St. Paul earlier this week, which prompted the city’s police chief to deploy additional officers in an attempt to quell the violence. Since Aug. 30, gun-related violence has risen in the city, with five homicides reported.

Ross, of Apple Valley, was fatally shot while walking down a busy street in broad daylight in the city’s North End on Monday. Police said someone fired a gun at Ross from across Rice Street, near Winnipeg Avenue.

Ross went inside a corner store, Winnipeg Grocery and Deli, where he died, according to police.

This week, people have gathered outside the corner store to memorialize Ross, leaving behind balloons, candles and stuffed animals.

Ross’ aunt remembered him as loyal, saying she would never forget the talks they had or his smile. Ross, who was known as “Mezzy,” just turned 18 in August.

Ross also had been in trouble. He shot and critically injured another male during a confrontation at Hamline Park in St. Paul last summer, according to court records.

The male fired back at Ross and his friend, but missed.

Ross pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault involving a deadly weapon in October, and, still a juvenile at the time, was adjudicated delinquent about two weeks later. He was ordered to attend a long-term program at a juvenile facility.

He also committed simple robbery and theft while still a minor, according to court records.

University of St. Thomas officials say they’re investigating after a racist word was traced in dust on a residence hall’s bathroom window.

TommieMedia, the campus news outlet, reported President Julie Sullivan announced by email Thursday that the word had been found Wednesday night in the all-male Ireland Hall.

Residence Life Director Aaron Macke called the word “an act of hate against our black residents and a damaging act against the entire St. Thomas community.”

Campus police are reviewing video, interviewing students and consulting with St. Paul police.

TommieMedia reports it’s the fourth racist incident on campus in four years. St. Thomas has about 6,000 undergraduates, most on its St. Paul campus.

Singer R. Kelly was a no-show for an initial court appearance in a Minnesota case in which he is accused of offering a 17-year-old girl $200 to take off her clothes and dance in 2001.

Kelly, who is jailed in Chicago on sexual abuse and other counts, was charged in Minnesota in August with soliciting the girl after meeting her before a concert in Minneapolis.

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces previously filed federal and state charges in New York and Chicago. Prosecutor Judith Cole told Judge Jay Quam during Thursday’s brief hearing that federal authorities in Illinois were “not willing to give us access to him” until his case there is resolved.

The judge then issued a bench warrant as a formality.

Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg, who didn’t attend the hearing and isn’t officially registered in the Minnesota case, said they never got notice of it. A spokesman for the county attorney’s office said the summons was sent to Kelly’s last known address.

A St. Paul man is charged with attempted murder after shooting an acquaintance in the back of the head during a drunken dispute last month, leaving the victim unable to speak or breathe on his own, authorities say.

Michael Issiah Lane, 29, and the victim showed up at a friend’s residence on the 1600 block of Beech Street in St. Paul last Aug. 15 after a night out, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Friday.

Lane woke up the woman who lived there along with her husband and tried to speak to the husband about an injury the husband suffered recently because Lane wanted to avenge it, charges say.

Lane had a gun on him at the time, and was drunk, so his acquaintance told him they should leave, the complaint said.

As the woman was walking the men downstairs, Lane pointed the gun at the back of his acquaintance’s head, as if to shoot him, but then put the gun back in his pocket, according to the woman’s recounting to investigators.

After letting the men out the back door, the woman said she heard a single gunshot and heard the victim instructing Lane to either give him back his gun or shoot him, the complaint said.

The woman walked into her backyard to see what was going on, and that’s when she says she heard Lane say “I ain’t giving you (expletive),” before holding up a gun a few feet from a car the husband was sitting in and pulling the trigger, the complaint said.

The woman heard the glass shatter and the car horn go off and ran back inside her house.

Shortly thereafter, Lane kicked in her front door and told her that someone had shot at the two men, the complaint said. Then he instructed her to tell police that she saw a man in a red and white jersey shoot at them, leading them to fire back.

Police found the husband unconscious with a gunshot wound to his head when they responded to the scene.

The 27-year-old, who was not named in the charging document, remains in an intensive care unit with very little brain activity, the complaint said.

Lane, who fled the scene before police arrived, is being held in Olmsted County on a separate gun charge.

He declined to talk to investigators about the charges facing him in this case, which were filed by warrant and include one count of attempted second-degree murder, and a second count of first-degree assault.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

After a father and son confronted a male for breaking into their vehicle on a St. Paul street, he started shooting at them, police said.

No one was injured after the suspect shot four times, though bullets hit the vehicle.

Officers responded to the Frogtown area at 12:30 a.m. Friday after a report of shots fired.

A 46-year-old said he came home from the store and interrupted a male who was rummaging through a vehicle parked in front of his residence on Charles Avenue between Grotto and Avon streets, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

He pulled the would-be thief from the car and they began to fight, Ernster said. His 27-year-old son came out of the home to help and the suspect ran away.

Then, he turned back, fired at them and kept running. Police did not find the suspect.

A Minnesota man is accused of causing the death of another man by head-butting him at a downtown Minneapolis bar.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says 28-year-old Erik Kravchuck, of Golden Valley, is charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of 42-year-old Aleksandre Sambelashvili. The incident happened on July 28 and Sambelashvili died on Aug. 23.

Authorities say surveillance video shows Sambelashvili entering the bar about 1:30 a.m. and walking toward Kravchuck in a non-controversial manner with no apparent conflict. When Sambelashvili gets close to Kravchuck, police say the suspect violently head-butted the victim, apparently knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall backward and hit his head on the floor.

Court documents do not list an attorney for Kravchuck.

A suspect has been arrested in the fire that destroyed the Adas Israel Congregation synagogue in Duluth earlier this week.

The Duluth Police Department has called a Sunday morning press conference “regarding the arrest of Adas Israel Synagogue fire suspect and fire investigation conclusion,” a city of Duluth news release said on Friday. Originally set for Saturday, the press conference was rescheduled in order to observe the Jewish Sabbath, or Shabbat.

Officials with the city declined to offer any further details. The news conference will include Mayor Emily Larson, Police Chief Mike Tusken and Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj, the city said.

A large and intense investigation into the cause of the fire has stretched through the week, drawing on an estimated 20 investigators with the Duluth police and fire departments, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That particular federal agency gets involved when a house of worship is burned.

Firefighters were called to the synagogue at 302 E. Third St., Duluth, MN 55805, after 2:30 a.m., Monday. Suppression efforts inside the building were called off after the structure began to collapse. Authorities have held two press conferences in the wake of the fire, saying they’d identified new clues on Tuesday.

It is not yet known who is in custody or what charges the person is facing.

Members of the congregation were also declining to talk in advance of the news conference.

The Adas Israel Congregation synagogue is home to a “shul” of Modern Orthodox Jewish families. Built in 1901, the synagogue is the last of its kind in the Northland. To worship in the Modern Orthodox Jewish faith is to practice Jewish law while living out modern lives.

News of the synagogue burning to the ground spread throughout the world. New York author Sarah Rose is a descendant of the synagogue’s founders. She called Duluth her ancestral home, and told the News Tribune this week, “The most terrifying image to any Jew anywhere is a synagogue on fire. It is what our nightmares look like.”

“There was no place kinder and more welcoming for Jews than the Upper Midwest,” Rose said. “The thought this might be intentional and a hate crime is horrifying. We’re waiting to hear. We hope it’s not our worst nightmare.”

A Burnsville man was charged Friday with second-degree murder for the brutal slaying of a 60-year-old Minneapolis man whose body was found in a burning house.

Larry Foster, 66, is suspected of killing Daniel Bradley by hitting him over 100 times with blunt force and a sharp weapon, according to the Hennepin County attorney’s office. He is being held at the Hennepin County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Just after midnight on Sept. 2, Minneapolis firefighters responded to smoke coming from a house at 2633 13th Ave. S. After extinguishing a fire in the kitchen, which was in the rear of the house, Bradley was discovered dead in the front of the house. His carotid artery had been cut, police said.

Police found blood on the back door of the house, and found a bloody butcher knife in the backyard. They followed the blood trail through a neighbor’s yard and on a picket fence as though someone grabbed it to jump over, the complaint states.

Both DNA testing and a bloody fingerprint matched to Foster.

With that identification Sept. 6, police began looking for Foster. They learned that St. Paul police also were looking for him because he left his Ford truck near a boat launch in Hidden Falls Park on Sept. 2. Inside the truck was blood and another bloody knife, according to the complaint.

On Wednesday, police received a tip Foster was going to check into Twin Town treatment facility in St. Paul, and they arrested him. Foster admitted he knew Bradley, but declined to say anything more.

Foster has a 2000 conviction of cocaine possession and a 2000 conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. In 2008 he was convicted of making terroristic threats.

His next court appearance is Oct. 10.