St. Paul man charged with murder in shooting death of wife

A St. Paul man was charged Wednesday with fatally shooting his wife at their home a day earlier.

Johnny R. Aldridge, 46, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in the death of 41-year-old Caitlin K. Aldridge.

The husband remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a court appearance Thursday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Caitlin Aldridge was shot at their residence on W. Winnipeg Avenue just west of Sylvan Street in the city's North End neighborhood.

The husband called police from the department's headquarters parking lot about 3 a.m. Tuesday to report the homicide.

Officers went to the home and found Caitlin Aldridge already dead, said police spokesman Steve Linders.

Police had been to the residence in the past on a call that was "domestic in nature," Linders said. He described the call as concerning a person in crisis.

Aldridge arrived at police headquarters and reported that he had shot and killed his wife and that his 13-year-old daughter and the family dog still were in the house. A handgun was found in the vehicle that he drove to the headquarters.

Police arrived at the home, where they found Caitlin Aldridge on a bed. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:15 a.m.

They escorted the daughter from the home and she explained that Aldridge had PTSD after being shot in the hand in June, that he wasn't himself since then and that he and her mother had been fighting over the past few days.

The girl said she went to bed Monday evening and didn't hear or see anything that happened in the home between her parents.

In an interview, Johnny Aldridge told police that he and his wife were arguing and that she laughed off an allegation he made.