Minnesota Officers Responding to Call Find 'Hellish Situation' as Several Shooters Leave Casualties Everywhere
One person was killed and 14 people were wounded early Sunday after gunshots rang out inside a St. Paul, Minnesota, bar.
Three men have been arrested in connection with the shootings, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Steve Linders, a police spokesman, described the scene inside the Seventh Street Truck Park as “hellish.”
The bar was crowded “when multiple individuals decided to pull out guns, with no regard for human life, and pull the trigger,” he told reporters.
Police Chief Todd Axtell said the city has not seen that level of casualties in one incident during his more than 30 years in the department.
Linders said that after police responded to the 12:15 a.m. call, they found victims outside on the sidewalk and in the street as well as inside the bar, the Pioneer Press reported. He said citizens helped clear a path for first responders to reach the wounded.
BREAKING: A woman is dead and 14 people are wounded following a shootout in a St. Paul bar early Sunday morning. https://t.co/CJ2Xcc41Mg
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) October 10, 2021
“I think about the young woman who died,” Linders said. “One minute she’s having a good time, the next minute she’s lying in her friends’ arms who are trying to save her life and she didn’t make it. I can’t think of anything worse.”
The woman who was killed was pronounced dead at the scene.
All other victims are expected to live.
Scene at the club following the shooting in St. Paul pic.twitter.com/kvVyTBJjAR
— Chuck (@VikeKang_) October 10, 2021
No motive for the shooting has been confirmed, Linders said. He was asked if the shooting was random.
“Random in the sense that innocent victims were struck, yes. Random in the sense that … the people shooting at each other didn’t know each other, probably not,” he said, according to the Pioneer Press.
The investigation is a “complex investigation” with “bullet holes all over in the bar,” Linders said, as police try to determine what took place.
“My heart breaks for the woman who was killed, her loved ones and everyone else who was in that bar this morning,” Axtell said in a statement, according to the Pioneer Press.
“In an instant, they found themselves caught in a hellish situation. I want them to know that we have the best investigators in the country, and we won’t stop until we find the people responsible for this madness. We will do our part to hold them accountable.”
John Maloney, who lives in an apartment above the bar, heard the shooting.
“All of a sudden — I lost count — I heard multiple gunshots, pop, pop, pop, pop,” he told the Pioneer Press.
He said when the shots ended he saw a “mass influx of people leaving the bar out onto the street. People were screaming and hollering and yelling and running everywhere … I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Our community is devastated by the shocking scenes from last night,” Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement.
“As our St. Paul officers work to bring those responsible for these senseless acts into custody, our work to build more proactive and comprehensive public safety strategies is more urgent than ever. We will never accept violence in our community.”
The three men arrested were identified as Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr., 33; Devondre Trevon Phillips, 29; and Jeffrey Orlando Hoffman, 32. They were being treated Sunday for wounds suffered in the shooting, according to the Pioneer Press.
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