ST PAUL, Minn. — Editor's note: Antonio Wright has since been acquitted of the charges stemming from the Sept. 4, 2022 shooting deaths of three people in St. Paul.
However, in December 2023, Wright was convicted of kidnapping and shooting a man in a separate incident that occurred just two days before, on Sept. 2.
A Minneapolis man is charged with murder in a shooting inside a St. Paul home that left three people dead and three others injured.
The criminal complaint filed against 41-year-old Antonio Dupree Wright lays out witness accounts of the shooting, and the potential motive for why it was carried out.
St. Paul police squads were dispatched to the home on the 900 block of Case Avenue East around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 4 on reports of a shooting. When officers arrived they found two people, referred to in the criminal complaint as SA and JC, who told them there were multiple people dead inside the residence.
Inside the door they found 42-year-old Cory Freeman face down with gunshot wounds to his head and torso. Maisha Spaulding, 44, was seated on a couch with a gunshot to the head, while 33-year-old Angelica Gonzales was in a corner of the living room, also shot in the head. All three were declared dead on the scene.
Investigators on the scene talked to SA, who told them the man who had shot them was named Antonio, alleging him to be a heroin dealer with ties to the Vice Lords, who he considered a "close friend." SA said Antonio, who is also known by his nickname, Figg, had been paranoid in recent days thinking the feds were tracking him and people were snitching.
Authorities soon identified the alleged shooter as Antonio Wright.
SA said Antonio drove up to the house on a scooter, then walked inside the back door wearing a hoodie and ski mask. The witness said he greeted his friend, saying "What's up, D?" SA says Antonio answered "I'm not D," then raised a tan Glock 9mm handgun and shot Spaulding with no warning as she faced away from him. The defendant then allegedly shot Gonzales and Freeman as he attempted to flee. SA says Antonio then shot him three times before walking into a bedroom and shooting a person named JC. SA told police he rolled under a couch and played dead, and watched as Antonio Wright walked out and rode away on the scooter.
The witness referred to as SA told investigators he believes Wright thought they were snitching on him. He admitted he owed the defendant $500 for heroin, but did not think he would do "all this" for that amount of money.
Wright is also charged in Ramsey County District Court with kidnapping and attempted murder from a separate incident on Sept. 2, 2022. Wright put a gun to the head of someone who he thought had snitched on him after the man overheard Wright discussing a murder. Wright shot the victim four times after that man fled a vehicle he had been forced into.
Ramsey County prosecutors say a search of Wright's criminal record shows eight prior felony convictions ranging from assault and armed robbery to drug possession and fleeing police.
Antonio Wright is being held in Chicago, awaiting extradition back to the Twin Cities.
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