'Shelter-in-place' alert about homicide suspect reaches more Twin Cities cellphones than intended

A "shelter-in-place" alert from law enforcement warning of a pursuit of a teenage homicide suspect from Roseville lit up more cellphones in and around St. Paul than intended late Tuesday morning, officials said.

The alert from the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center about the search for the 17-year-old male went out about 10:52 a.m. and was received by cellphones in St. Paul, Minneapolis and possibly as far away as Rochester.

The suspect was arrested within 40 minutes, a follow-up alert read.

Roseville Police Chief Erika Scheider said a 911 caller in a home in the 1100 block of W. Ryan Avenue said the 17-year-old was attacking others in the residence and ran off.

The alert prompted a witness to call 911 about someone who was determined to be the suspect running without shoes west toward the State Fairgrounds. St. Paul police soon arrested the teen without incident, the chief said.

Emergency responders declared a woman dead at the scene; two people were hospitalized with "significant injuries," and two others suffered minor injuries, Scheider said. Police have yet to release the identities of the suspect or the victims.

In an interview with the Star Tribune, Scheider said the woman who died was related to the teen. The chief said a baseball bat likely was the weapon used in the homicide and a sharp object was used to injure others.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said in a tweet moments after the alert went out that "the incident occurred in Roseville near the Har Mar Mall & notices inadvertently went out wider than intended."

Many agencies around the metro also informed Twitter followers about the overreach of the shelter-in-place warning. The Mendota Heights Police Department, in Dakota County, said in a Facebook post that the alert "was accidentally sent to everyone and their brother" and was concerning "a barricaded suspect."

St. Paul Police sent a lengthy tweet about the incident after the fact acknowledging the fear the alert might have caused. "After recent current events, the unimaginable comes to mind. We're thinking of our loved ones — at school, work, hospitals, department stores — are they safe?"

"We received your messages, tweets, calls and emails. We hear you. And we'll be working with our partners to ensure this doesn't happen again," the SPPD tweeted.

Winters said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon that "for reasons unknown" the Federal Communications Commission's wireless emergency alert system sent the message beyond its intended target: from Larpenteur Avenue on the south to Hwy. 36 on the north, and from Snelling Avenue on the west to Victoria Street on the east.

A third widely distributed message was sent at 11:30 a.m. once the suspect was arrested in St. Paul.

"Ramsey County is actively reviewing this incident with our staff and state and federal partners to identify why the alert went out to such an excessively broad area," Winters continued. "Ramsey County deeply apologizes for the confusion [and] will continue to investigate this issue in the days ahead to identify the cause of the issue and prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future."