Two people were fatally shot inside a building in downtown St. Paul on Monday, inching the city closer to a record number of homicides.
Officers from the Metro Transit and St. Paul police departments responded about 8:30 p.m. to reports of shots fired at the building at E. 5th and Cedar streets, Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr said.
The building includes a stairway and elevator connecting the street level to the skyway near the Green Line's Central Station.
On Tuesday, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office identified the dead as 18-year-old David Burton Johnson and 21-year-old Ellijah Marquise Payne. Both were from St. Paul.
They were taken to Regions Hospital, where both were pronounced dead. Kerr said that no arrests have been made, but preliminary information suggests it was not a random shooting.
The young men's deaths mark the 36th and 37th homicides of the year in St. Paul, one shy of matching the record 38 homicides set in 2021.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter weighed in on the double homicide on Twitter, calling it "disgusting" and hinting that the city would take steps to address violent incidents.
"Our city, our community and certainly our police officers are united in our rejection of this violence, and our resolve to keep guns out of the wrong hands," Carter said in his tweet. "Clearly we have more to do; stay tuned."
