Suspect held after man shot and killed outside St. Paul strip mall

A man was shot and killed outside a strip mall on St. Paul’s East Side on Tuesday afternoon.

Police had not determined what exactly led up to the shooting by Tuesday evening but said a suspect was in custody after a foot chase. A gun was also recovered.

The incident was reported about 12:30 p.m. on the 1300 block of Maryland Avenue E. The suspect was arrested sometime later less than a mile from the shooting scene, on the 1500 block of Clear Avenue E.

Police did not provide any other identifying information about the victim or suspect.

The shooting marks the 18th homicide of the year in St. Paul, compared with 24 at the same date last year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database.

Homicides generally have fallen locally and nationally after 2021, but remain elevated compared to 2019 in many U.S. cities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The nation saw a historic 30% increase in homicides in 2020, which criminologists attribute to far-ranging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and fallout from the police murder of George Floyd.

The strip mall from Tuesday’s shooting is at the corner of Maryland Avenue and Clarence Street, in a small hub of businesses. Two workers in the area said they heard somewhere between three and eight gunshots but heard no commotion leading up to it.

Workers and passersby to the scene said the neighborhood is mostly quiet, but general issues with poverty, housing and substance abuse occasionally create problems.

At a McDonald’s restaurant across from the strip mall, workers said people often loiter at the intersection. Gunshots are rare, they said, but fights break out from time to time, sometimes inside the restaurant.

The situation grew bad enough that last year that the restaurant closed its seating area and bathrooms to the public by walling them off from the order counter. Employees now use the spacious seating area as a coat and break room.

Police sometimes force loiterers to move along, but they often return within minutes, said Pamela Gray, a worker at the restaurant.

She said she hasn’t noticed the city helping with the situation in any other capacity.

“I don’t think they do enough,” she said.

A staffer for Nelsie Yang, who represents the area on the St. Paul City Council, declined to comment Tuesday.

Major Scott Spicer, who manages a Salvation Army service center on the East Side, said there are no quick fixes for the challenges in the neighborhood, which he said aren’t that different from other urban communities.

He believes the city “does what it can” to offer affordable housing and other services.

After working in the neighborhood for several years, he said he’s come to love it for the pride its residents have, the small acts of kindness he’s witnessed and the diversity of the residents.

Nevertheless, he said there is a small group of people in the neighborhood who may feel desperate as they navigate issues surrounding housing, food and mental health.

“People are in survival mode,” he said. “That’s a pretty rough place to find yourself.”