Murder charges: Gunman walked up to man outside St. Paul store, shot him in back

A 22-year-old man was charged Friday with walking up to a man standing outside a store on University Avenue in St. Paul and killing him with a gunshot to the back.

E'Shaun M. Funches, of St. Paul, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree intentional and unintentional murder in connection with the killing mid-afternoon Wednesday of Alfonzo Armstead, 30, of St. Paul.

Funches appeared in court Friday morning and remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Funches' criminal history includes a sentence in Hennepin County in November 2020 for the armed robbery of a man in downtown Minneapolis, according to court records.

Funches was sentenced to 60 days in the workhouse and put on three years' probation. He came off supervised probation on Nov. 17 and allegedly killed Armstead 3½ weeks later.

According to Friday's criminal complaint and police:

A 911 call sent officers to Sunrise Grocery and Tobacco in the 400 block of W. University Avenue, where they saw Armstead outside with gunshots to the back, leg and abdomen. Emergency medical personnel took him to Regions Hospital, where he died shortly afterward.

Armstead's girlfriend arrived and told the officers that he had recently been jumped by three men in front of the store.

Exterior video surveillance showed Funches exit an SUV, which was occupied by two other people, and walk swiftly toward Armstead, who was standing outside the store.

Amstead's "back was turned to the shooter when the shooter opened fire," the charges read. Armstead collapsed, while Funches ran away.

An officer in an unmarked squad car spotted Funches a couple of blocks to the south and arrested him.

A police dog found a handgun nearby in a plastic bag beneath a pile of leaves. The ammunition in the gun's magazine matched the casings left at the scene.

Funches told police he had nothing to do with the shooting. He declined to say anything else and asked to speak with a lawyer.

Both people in the SUV that brought Funches to the store identified him as the person who shot Armstead. The driver said he was troubled about what Funches did, so he called police.

"He said Funches has pulled a gun on him in the past, so he kept Funches at a distances," the charges read.