Man shot to death over small drug debt in St. Paul homeless encampment, charge says

A small debt for a fentanyl purchase led to a man being repeatedly shot on his birthday in a St. Paul homeless encampment, according to a criminal complaint.

Francisco Diaz-Xique, 21, of Aitkin, Minn., was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting on July 20 of Steffon T. Jennings, 37, of St. Paul.

Diaz-Xique was booked into jail Tuesday afternoon. He appeared in court Wednesday and remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail. He’s due back in court on Oct. 2. The Minnesota Star Tribune has reached out to his attorney for a response to the allegations.

Court records in Minnesota show that Diaz-Xique‘s criminal history includes convictions for drug dealing and negligent storage of a gun.

Jennings’ sister, Tommalisha Edmonds, wrote in an online fundraising campaign that “Steffon Jennings aka SK or Rapper Skills … will truly be missed by everyone for his charming personality, artistic views on life, & the music that he leaves behind for the world to hear.”

According to the complaint and police:

Officers were sent about 1:15 p.m. to the encampment on Maryland Avenue near Jackson Street and saw Jennings had been shot while seated in a chair inside a tent. Medics pronounced him dead shortly before 1:30 p.m. Jennings had seven gunshot wounds, according to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Video surveillance from a nearby business captured Diaz-Xique, a man and a woman getting out of a car about 1 p.m. and walking to the encampment.

Diaz-Xique and the man came back to the car about 15 minutes later. Diaz-Xique drove a short distance, got out and walked away, while the other man entered a portable toilet and took off his T-shirt.

Police searched the car and found a box of 9-millimeter cartridges, a wallet with Diaz-Xique’s Minnesota identification and one of his fingerprints on the interior of the front window.

About 2½ hours after the shooting, a man approached a police officer in a convenience store and “asked the officer to shake his hand,” the complaint read. While shaking hands, “the man passed the officer a piece of paper and said, ‘He and his girl did it,’ ” the complaint continued.

The piece of paper had the same phone number written on it that was on the piece of paper that police found in Jennings’ jacket. Police traced the phone number to Diaz-Xique.