ST PAUL, Minn. — Police say a man has been arrested in connection to the Sunday night shooting of an 18-year-old in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood.
The St. Paul Police Department said officers arrested a 37-year-old St. Paul man who is suspected in 18-year-old Lavonte Baymond Love's death.
The man was arrested at about 2:11 p.m. Monday. Officers said he was booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree murder and a third-degree criminal sexual conduct warrant.
Love was fatally shot Sunday at about 8:45 p.m. near the intersection of 7th Street East and Mounds Boulevard.
Police initially said the shooting may have been part of a road rage incident. However, they said Monday that further investigation ruled that possibility out. Investigators now believe the shooting happened after a "dispute" earlier in the evening at another location.
When officers got to the scene after a call reporting shots fired, they found Love inside a vehicle and unconscious, not breathing and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Police said they tried to help him and called for St. Paul Fire Medics. Love was taken to Regions Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Sergeant Natalie Davis, a PIO with St. Paul Police, said the deaths in the city are "deeply concerning." She emphasized that the police need the public's help to solve these crimes, saying that if someone has information and doesn't want to talk to police, they can call CrimeStoppers, talk to a member of the clergy or a St. Paul city leader that they trust.
"I just feel like our luck's run out here," Davis said. "When you look at the numbers, we've have over 1,350 shots fired calls in our city. That's up, that's up 5% from last year."
Davis also said that more than 150 people have been shot in St. Paul in 2021, a number that has also risen from the previous year.
This is the 21st homicide of the year in St. Paul, and the third in the last 24 hours.