ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul Police are investigating the city's latest fatal shooting that happened Monday night.
Officers responded to Jackson Street and Wheelock Parkway around 9:30 p.m. They found the victim lying on the ground with multiple gunshot injuries. Police say no one has yet been identified or arrested.
There was another fatal shooting on Saturday night and police found a man with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the hospital.
Then on Friday night, a man was fatally stabbed to death on Seventh Street East in St. Paul. Police took a suspect into custody soon afterward.
"The last four days have not been good days for our city," said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.
He said there have now been 22 homicides in the city this year, down from 27 this same time last year. Chief Henry says 80% of the murders, though, have since been solved.
"Solving these murders is not and is never going to be the answer," said Chief Henry in a press conference Tuesday afternoon to address the violence. "We have to prevent them from happening in the first place."
The latest data from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension shows that violent crime is down 6.9% last year all across the state. Firearm homicides are still high compared to pre-pandemic levels.
"There are so many people who care about this issue so deeply and who do the work on it, day in and day out," said Protect Minnesota Executive Director Maggiy Emery. Protect Minnesota was founded in 1991 and is the state's only independent gun violence prevention organization.
Emery said safe storage gun laws and reporting lost or stolen weapons, along with conflict resolution, can help people in crisis.
"There are things we can do before the incident occurs to make sure that somebody actively in that moment or rage or fear doesn't pull the trigger of a gun," said Emery. "We all live with the collective trauma of knowing that anybody who's experiencing a break of some kind, mostly has easy access to firearms."
Experts agree that random shootings are rare and that interpersonal conflict is typically driving crime.
"The work that we do is tiring because we need everybody to be a part of it," said Emery, who like Chief Henry, is calling on the community to step up and implement evidence-based solutions to this problem.
"We need everyone to get off of the bench and get into the fight on this issue," said Chief Henry. "The police department simply cannot do this alone."
Chief Henry said the recent shootings are likely not connected. At the press conference, he also pointed to different programs the department and city have implemented to foster youth outreach and provide resources and services.