ST PAUL, Minn. — Gunshots rang out across the capital city Thursday night into Friday morning, killing three men in neighboring St. Paul communities.
Emergency dispatchers got 911 calls from multiple people Thursday around 10:30 p.m. reporting gunshots in the 200 block of Maryland Ave.
When officers got to the area, they found a man lying in the street near the intersection of Maryland Avenue and Matilda Street, not far from the Willow Reserve in St. Paul's North End.
Police secured the area and began lifesaving measures on the victim while they waited for St. Paul Fire Medics, but were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived and pronounced the victim dead without taking him to the hospital.
St. Paul Police PIO Steve Linders said early Friday, just a few hours later, police were called to the intersection of Sherburne Avenue and Macukbin Street. Linders said a woman called 911 just after midnight and said a man had been shot in his car.
Once squads reached the scene in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood officers found a man in his 30s with a gunshot wound.
The man was taken to Regions Hospital and rushed into surgery, but he died of his injuries about three hours after being shot.
On Monday, May 23, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner identified the man as 38-year-old Tristan Trice of Brooklyn Park. Police added that the case is still active and no charges have been filed.
Police say they took a 28-year-old woman into custody. She was booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault before the man died.
Officials say the woman is being held as investigators try to figure out what happened leading up to the shooting.
The final incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. in downtown St. Paul, near 5th Street and Cedar Street on the light rail platform for the Green Line.
Transit police say a man was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
The Green Line light rail is closed Friday morning as crime scene investigators collect evidence and document the shooting.
Officials haven't released the names of any of the victims at this time. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsies in the coming days for the three men who were killed.
“It’s one of those things, it’s a beautiful night," said Linders. "People are sleeping with their windows open. And we feel strongly that nobody should have to hear gunshots ringing out at any time of day. But it often happens in the middle of the night."
“I was out here earlier and a gentleman who lives in the neighborhood walked up to me and he asked me what was going on," Linders continued. "I informed him that somebody had lost his life. He had lost his life. And he just shook his head and looked down and said "This has got to stop.""
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter weighed in later Friday morning with a Twitter post decrying the shootings and loss of life.
"I am dismayed by the violence our city endured last night; this is not who we are," Carter wrote. "My heart is with the victims’ families, as well as all our neighbors who are traumatized & exhausted by these cycles of gun violence we’ve endured for far too long."
Anyone with information about any of these shootings is asked to call police at 651-266-5650.
These are the 16th, 17th and 18th homicides of the year in St. Paul, and police say more than 90 people have been shot in the city this year, which is 10 more than at this time in 2021.
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