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One killed, 14 wounded in shooting inside St. Paul bar early Sunday
One killed, 14 wounded in shooting inside St. Paul bar early Sunday
St. Paul police say they've arrested three men who were injured and taken to area hospitals.
By Kim Hyatt Star Tribune
OCTOBER 10, 2021 — 4:26PM
Gallery: Investigators processed the chaotic scene of a multiple shooting at the bar Truck Park in St. Paul, Minn., that happened after midnight on Sunday, October 10, 2021.
DJ Peter Parker knows how to read the room from a bird's-eye view on stage to anticipate any trouble from crowds, after two decades of shows spanning Baltimore, DC, Boston and beyond.
But the former GO 95.3 radio host could have never anticipated a show in St. Paul would turn so violent he'd have to dive off stage to avoid gunfire in the city's largest mass shooting in recent history, killing one woman and injuring at least 14.
"I've never had anybody shoot inside a party ever, especially in a place we felt was a very safe place," said Parker.
Like every Saturday night for the past four months, Parker was playing mainstream hip-hop to a college crowd of mostly young women at the Seventh Street Truck Park, a busy bar and restaurant a block south of Xcel Energy Center. Around 12:15 a.m., Parker said a dozen or so gunshots rang out. The crowd hit the ground and Parker cut the music only to hear everyone screaming. He said he didn't see a scuffle or altercation leading up to the shooting.
Within seconds, the crowd ran outside of the bar and he saw several people on the floor, including a woman in her 20s who was killed. "My heart is broken for the girl who died," said Parker.
Police confirmed the name of the victim as Marquisha Wiley. The Pioneer Press reports the 27-year-old was a veterinary technician from St. Paul. Her death is the 32nd homicide in St. Paul this year. In 2020, the city matched its one-year record with 34 homicides, the same number as 1992.
St. Paul Police say among the wounded were three suspects who were arrested Sunday afternoon. The men, ages 33, 32 and 29, were taken to area hospitals for treatment before being apprehended. The Star Tribune does not typically name suspects until they are formally charged.
People began "frantically" calling 911 shortly after midnight Sunday and begging for help, and police arrived to a "hellish situation," said St. Paul Chief of Police Todd Axtell in a statement.
"I spoke with the homicide victim's family this morning and they are absolutely devastated," Axtell tweeted. "I am incredibly proud of the exhausted women and men of the SPPD."
On a Sunday morning walk with her labradoodle Shiloh, Amber Remackel was so overcome with emotion that she sat across the street from the Truck Park at a table outside Cossetta's Italian Market & Pizzeria and wept. The mother and school counselor said she's lived in the neighborhood for the past six years and has never seen such violence.
"It's way too close to home," she said, wiping away tears.
Remackel said she just picked up her 21-year-old daughter and a group of Iowa State University friends on Friday night from the Truck Park. "It's a fun place to be in St. Paul," she said of the bar, which is always packed on weekends.
"I walk this neighborhood at all times of the night with my dog and never felt unsafe," she said.
Police spokesman Steve Linders said he was not aware of any recent calls for police service to the Truck Park. He said the department's video team is recovering and reviewing security footage from the bar.
Truck Park is part of a popular restaurant and bar district along West Seventh Street, home to longtime restaurants and bars such as Cossetta, Mancini's Char House and Patrick McGovern's Pub. In recent years, the neighborhood has been in the midst of a building boom, with several upscale apartment and condo buildings sprouting up, along with new breweries, restaurants and bars, like the Truck Park.
"It's just not on our radar as a spot where we see this type of thing," Linders said. "We don't see this type of thing anywhere."
Good Samaritans and security guards at the bar helped first responders render aid to victims. Videos circulating on social media show sidewalks flooded with stunned patrons crying and lying on the ground.
Northbound West Seventh Street was reduced to one lane Sunday morning outside the Truck Park as a yellow crime scene barricade stretched from Chestnut Street to the sidewalk in front of Hampton Inn and Suites. Some people staying at the hotel and nearby residents said they didn't hear shooting.
Debris of leaves, bloodied bandages and plastic cups littered the cordoned-off sidewalk. A St. Paul Police forensics van parked inside the barricade along with several other vehicles left there from Saturday night. People out on morning walks and in Minnesota Vikings gear headed to watch the game passed by the scene taking pictures and pointing.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PETER PARKER
DJ Peter Parker works a show at Seventh Street Truck Park in St. Paul on Saturday evening, October 9, about 10 minutes before gunfire broke out.
Dave Cossetta, owner of the restaurant that's been in the neighborhood since 1911 and on West Seventh Street since the 1980s, said crime has been an increasing concern in the area. He said he and other business owners in the area link the uptick on the Freedom House, a homeless shelter a few blocks away from Cossetta.
"Seventh Street has become a lot more dangerous lately," Cossetta said. "There's been a lot of issues more than ever and that's pretty much the way it's been for over a year. I don't know the circumstances across the street but it's been a common theme lately."
Cossetta said there have been confrontations outside his restaurant and he said guys have pulled knives on people in broad daylight. "It's scary," he said. "There's stuff going on in the day. In the nighttime it only accelerates."
He said city officials have not listened to local business owners' concerns about the recent wave in criminal activity.
Molly Jalma, executive director of the Listening House, which operates the Freedom House in the former fire station on West Seventh Street, said she spoke with the shelter's off-duty police officer who worked Saturday night and said Freedom House guests had no involvement with the shooting.
"This wasn't an issue of people who are unsheltered," she said. "This is an issue of gun violence."
Linders said his partner in the department for 15 years "can't remember anything like this in her tenure."
"We have a very busy bar, a lot of people just enjoying themselves and then we had a few individuals who decided to pull out guns and pull the trigger indiscriminately, with no regard for human life," said Linders. "It's nothing short of a tragedy."
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter released a statement Sunday morning saying the community "is devastated by the shocking scene from last night."
As police continue to investigate, "our work to build more proactive and comprehensive public safety strategies is more urgent than ever," he said. "We will never accept violence in our community."
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents St. Paul, issued a statement saying, "the epidemic of gun violence plaguing the Twin Cities has hit us in St. Paul with a mass shooting event that can only be described as a horror."
McCollum pledged her support to the St. Paul Police.
"I am committed to keeping St. Paul safe and that means working with all community leaders to get guns off our streets and out of the hands of criminals," she said. "We must never allow this kind of criminal act to happen again."
wtf is going on???
