ST PAUL, Minn. — Friends of the woman who was shot and killed in Lowertown Wednesday night say she had a personality that sparkled.
They say she moved into the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative in February and fit right in. They say she was welcoming, leaving her door open for her neighbors to walk in and chat. They told KARE 11 she had a lot of energy and wanted to make her community a better place.
She was working on one of the co-ops projects, painting a mural in a loading dock space ahead of the St. Paul Art Crawl next weekend, when she was killed.
“One of the most cold-blooded things I’ve ever seen in my life,” said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.
Henry said surveillance video shows she was on her knees painting when it happened. He said her murder appears to be random and one of the most “atypical homicides” he has seen.
“The evidence that we have, this was not something that was driven by a conflict or fight or a previous association,” Henry said “I’ve never seen anything like that even in a movie. It is awful. Every murder we have in the city is awful they’re all terrible, I don’t want to make a comparison that way, but in that sense, it’s atypical in a way that I just in almost 30 years I’ve never seen.”
Mayor Melvin Carter was also shocked to hear about her death.
“One of the most cold-blooded, one of the most brazen acts that I’ve ever seen in this community,” he said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.”
Henry said officers quickly identified the vehicle and driver in the suspected shooting and found that vehicle at a home in Bell Plaine.
He said officers established a perimeter, working toward an arrest.
“At approximately 6:30 [Thursday] morning, prior to us even making any contact with the address. The person that we suspected of this crime exited the house and our officers approached him. That person was armed with a handgun,” he said.
Henry said officers shot and killed the suspect. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the officer-involved shooting. The two officers involved are on standard leave.
Family of the suspect identified him as 29-year-old Seantrell Murdock, a father of four.
Police haven’t released the name of the victim or suspect yet.
“It’s a heartbreaking end all around,” Carter said.
Henry said they will compare the gun involved in the shooting and the one the suspect was holding to confirm if it was the same gun used in the Lowertown shooting.
Henry and Carter both talked about the need to make sure people who shouldn’t have guns don’t have them. Henry said this case has all kinds of hallmarks and flags that will be released in the coming days.
“We have rules and regulations on both the state and federal level that talk about what we need to do about who can have guns. Talk about the kind of mental health we need to have to possess firearms,” Henry said. “As the evidence comes out in the next few days, I hope we use this as an opportunity to really revisit how serious we are as a state and a country of the types of violence that have become all too common.”
“The members of our community who have no place with a firearm that we are doing everything we can as a community to work together to ensure that they don’t,” Carter said.
Henry said they will release the victim's name as soon as they make sure all of her family has been notified.