A 24-year-old St. Paul man who was shot in the head earlier this month died from his injuries Friday, shortly after a range of city and community leaders made a public plea about gun violence in the state’s capital.
The homicide marks the city’s 10th since mid-September — eight of which were committed by firearms, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database.
On Monday, police announced the death of Dejuan Hemphill, 24, of St. Paul, who was found shot Nov. 5 just before 5 p.m. in the area of Rice Street and University Avenue West in the city’s Frogtown neighborhood.
No arrests have been made. The Star Tribune was unable to locate members of Hemphill’s family Monday.
Last week, the city’s mayor, police chief and community officials decried the problematic behavior and asked the public to secure the firearms they own and help police confiscate illegally carried weapons.
“We know there are folks who carry because they want to feel safe,” said Mayor Melvin Carter, who added that St. Paul police clear almost all its homicide investigations. “We can keep people safe. St Paul is not a place to fire a gun.”
In the last two months, St. Paul has seen 10 homicides committed in the city, which includes a fatal police shooting Nov. 9 and other incidents that involved domestic violence, robbery and drugs, according to Police Chief Axel Henry.
“They cross the spectrum and so they don’t all fall in neat categories,” he said. “But they almost all fall in this category: they involve guns and they involve terrible decisions and they involve a level of violence we can’t accept in our city.”