The attempted private sale of an iPhone in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway area Saturday night resulted in a man and woman being shot and wounded and a 19-year-old man being arrested, police said.
Police are looking for a second suspect in the case.
And on Sunday afternoon, an unrelated instance of gunshots was reported at the same intersection — Wheeler Street and Blair Avenue — and a bullet went into a home, though no one was injured.
Neighbors are concerned and are meeting Thursday to discuss the incidents.
TWO INJURED SATURDAY NIGHT
In the iPhone incident, officers responded at 9 p.m. Saturday after a report of shots fired. They found a 35-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his arm and a 39-year-old woman who had been shot twice in the leg, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
Paramedics took the man and woman to St. Paul’s Regions Hospital; their injuries were not life-threatening. The pair told police they were selling an iPhone 10 on Facebook Marketplace. They arranged to meet a buyer at Blair and Wheeler and two males showed up.
One of the iPhone sellers was describing the phone when he heard a click, looked up and saw the two males pointing handguns at him, Ernster said. One said, “Give me everything you got,” and the man handed over the iPhone and his wallet, according to police.
As the man and woman walked toward their vehicle, they heard gunshots. The man immediately felt pain and the woman dived into the car. She didn’t realize she had been shot, Ernster said.
The two suspects ran away.
Police arrested Maurice Darshae Walker, 19, in Fridley at about 1 a.m. Monday, according to a Ramsey County jail booking report. He has not been charged.
The second suspect had not been found as of Monday afternoon and the investigation is ongoing, Ernster said.
SUNDAY INCIDENT RATTLES NEIGHBORS
On Sunday at 2 p.m., also at Wheeler Street and Blair Avenue, two groups got into a dispute and shot at each other several times, St. Paul Police Senior Cmdr. Steve Anderson wrote to Mary Kay Bailey, who had emailed him on behalf of neighbors.
A resident reported hearing glass breaking and then discovered a broken porch window and a bullet lodged in an interior wall, Ernster said.
Other callers described a male near a gray or blue vehicle on Wheeler shooting south toward a tan vehicle near Blair. The male got in the vehicle and fled east on Van Buren Avenue, while the driver of the tan vehicle headed east on Blair and out of the area.
Witnesses told police that at least six young men, who appeared to be 16 to 21 years old, were running through yards and jumping fences. It’s “unknown if they were victims, suspects or innocent people trying to flee the area for their safety,” Ernster said.
“You can imagine that as residents, parents, and grandparents, we’re all quite concerned about these incidents,” Bailey wrote to Anderson.
Police are interviewing witnesses and following up on leads, Anderson responded to Bailey on Monday morning.
The police department “immediately addressed” the shootings, Anderson wrote, saying they “saturated the area and surrounding neighborhoods and increased our patrol visibility and continue to do so.”
Police also are looking into the cases “to better assess what our next steps are in response to deterring this moving forward,” he continued.
The community meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Work It co-working space, 635 N. Fairview Ave. Police commanders and City Council Member Mitra Jalali Nelson have said they will be there.
