Two charged with attempted murder in St. Paul drive-by shooting that injured 10-year-old

A man and woman have been charged with attempted murder in connection with a New Year’s Eve drive-by shooting in St. Paul that seriously injured a 10-year-old child.

Prosecutors believe Morris Robert Chie Ryan, 26, and Kelci Marie Meyers, 28, were involved in a drive-by shooting that night which punched nearly a dozen bullet holes into the home of a 10-year-old boy, critically injuring him. The child’s condition has since improved. Ryan and Meyers were charged on Thursday with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and a dangerous weapons violation. Both attended their first court hearings for the case Friday morning.

Charging documents say that the boy and his family were in their home on the 700 block of Sherburne Avenue sometime before midnight on Dec. 31. His mother recorded video of herself dancing in the kitchen with the 10-year-old and his siblings as music played in the background. The boy began playing with Legos when gunshots rang and the mother heard a man yell expletives from the alley behind her home.

She moved the children out of the kitchen as another sibling carried the 10-year-old from the floor to an upstairs bedroom. When officers arrived at the home by around 11:56 p.m., finding a trail of blood leading to that bedroom. “A 10-year-old boy lay on the bed with family members applying pressure to a gunshot wound to the boy’s stomach and buttock,” the charging documents read. He was taken to Regions Hospital with a life-threatening injury and acute blood loss.

Officers found seven 9mm bullet casings in the alley behind the boy’s home, as well as 10 bullet holes in the rear window near the kitchen.

The mother suspected her former neighbor was a suspect, telling police the man was a nuisance who continued to threaten residents after moving out of his apartment there. He “said he would make sure [the mother] and her family had to move since he had to move out” she told police, adding that she obtained a harassment restraining order against the man. It was not served by the time of the shooting.

Neighbors’ video footage recorded a dark SUV circle the alley behind the family’s apartment twice before stopping near the family’s kitchen window. That footage recorded the sound of 14 gunshots before the sedan left the scene.

Traffic cameras revealed the sedan was a 2007 GMC Yukon registered to Ryan. Additional footage captured Ryan and Meyers exiting the Yukon at a Speedway gas station a minute after the child was reportedly shot. Cell phone data confirmed Ryan’s phone was at that gas station and at the scene of the crime that night.

Police later arrested the pair, recovering seven handguns from Meyer’s home in Hastings.

Ryan told police that he stayed inside on New Year’s Day to watch YouTube videos at his mother’s home in New Hope. He stopped answering questions and requested a lawyer when investigators asked about his relationship with Meyers.

Meyers said she spent that day with Ryan and his relatives in Hastings.

When shown pictures of the SUV, Meyers said that it looked like her truck. She said nothing or responded “I don’t know what to say” when asked about the shooting, and shook her head “no” when asked if she called the shots during the shooting.

Meyer’s next court date is scheduled for March 7. Ryan’s is set for March 8. Bail for both has been requested at $700,000, and both suspects have been ordered not to contact the child’s mother.