Men found shot dead in street in Minneapolis theater district, St. Paul

A month full of deadly gunfire in the Twin Cities added two more fatal shootings Saturday night, with men killed in downtown Minneapolis and the East Side of St. Paul, police in the cities said.

In both cases, the men were found lying in the street. They were taken to nearby hospitals, where they later died. And in both, no one was in custody as of early Sunday.

The deadly night started in Minneapolis, with a 911 call about a shooting near 8th Street and Hennepin Avenue, coming at 10:21 p.m., said Cynthina Barrington, a police spokeswoman.

When officers arrived, they found the man in the street. He was transported to HCMC, she said, and he died at the hospital.

Before the shooting, the man was involved in a physical altercation with the gunman, who fled the scene in a car, Barrington said, citing preliminary information.

About an hour later, police in St. Paul received 911 calls about gunfire near the intersection of Hudson Road and Earl Street, with reports of a man being struck.

Officers arrived to find a man in the street with an apparent gunshot wound, according to officer Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. Officers came to his aid, then called St. Paul fire medics. They took the man to Regions Hospital, where he died, Linders said.

The number of shootings in Minneapolis' First Precinct, which includes downtown, is up from last year. According to police, most of the shootings take place in Downtown West, the district where most downtown bars and clubs are located.

And in St. Paul, the city is on pace to exceed its worst year for homicides in the past decade — 24 in 2017. The spike in deadly gun violence now includes eight in September, in addition to a Sept. 15 fatal police shooting that killed Ronald K. Davis.

Check back with StarTribune.com for more on this developing story.