A U.S. Postal Service carrier who shot his supervisor five times inside a post office in St. Paul over the weekend has been coping with mental health problems, according to an attempted murder charge filed Tuesday.
Tewabe Semu Getachew, 28, of St. Paul was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree attempted murder in connection with the shooting Sunday afternoon of Roy Varghese, 50, of Eagan at the Postal Service’s Elway Station at 1715 W. 7th St.
Getachew appeared in court Tuesday morning and remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail. He’s due back in court Nov. 5. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
The complaint said Getachew fired 12 rounds from his handgun, with five of them striking Varghese in the back and elsewhere. Getachew has a government-issued permit to carry a firearm in public, the complaint noted.
A critically wounded Varghese was taken by ambulance to Regions Hospital for treatment and “is miraculously in stable condition,” the complaint read. He was scheduled for surgery Tuesday.
Police said they arrested Getachew about an hour after the shooting during a traffic stop close to his home near W. 7th and Madison streets.
Court records show Getachew was convicted in May 2022 of a gross misdemeanor for threatening to have another person kill the owner of a senior assisted-living facility in Edina where he worked as a janitor. His sentence, handed down in May 2022 and amended in August 2022, put him on two years’ probation. Terms included a ban for those two years from possessing a gun.
Since Jan. 1, Minnesota law allows certain people to request an order from the court to prohibit someone from purchasing or possessing a firearm, known informally as a “red flag” law. Petioners must be a family or household member, a chief law enforcement officer, a city or county attorney or a guardian.
