As family members struggle with questions of why loved ones died by gun violence in recent weeks in St. Paul, community members and law enforcement also seek answers.
Eight homicides — just over one-third of the city’s killings this year — happened in a span of a month.
Why?
The killings aren’t connected to each other, said St. Paul police Cmdr. Shari Falkowski, who heads the homicide unit.
But they aren’t happening in a vacuum — some are tied to disputes that were recent or from years ago; some are linked to drugs; some are gang-related.
Other than homicides, reports of crime against people are down overall in St. Paul this year, compared with the same period last year.
There have been fewer shots-fired reports this year overall, but they’ve spiked this month. There were 50 in the first half of last September 2018, compared with 81 during the same period this month. And more people have been injured from gunfire than in months past.
“This rapid increase in shootings has put the city on edge, and rightfully so,” Falkowski said. “What we’re hearing from the community is that there are a lot of people in the city right now who don’t have a lot of hope. … They’re young people looking for something to do … and in the absence of positive outlets for their interests and energy, they are using their time feuding with one another.”
And while police and community members said in the past that these disputes would have been settled with angry words or fistfights, now people are picking up guns.
“The violence we have endured over the past few weeks is heartbreaking and unacceptable,” said Mayor Melvin Carter. “Ending these cycles — and dismantling the root causes behind them — is our highest priority.”
A SPIKE IN HOMICIDES
In the past 20 years, St. Paul homicides peaked at 24 in 2005, decreased in the years that followed, and were back up to 22 in 2017. There were 15 last year.
It’s too soon to say whether the recent homicides indicate a long-term trend or if they’re a spike in the moment, said James Densley, a Metropolitan State University criminal justice professor who has researched urban violence and gangs.
When there are a series of homicides, “it can create a sense that this is happening with such regularity that people think, ‘This is the way in which we need to settle our grievances,’ ” Densley said. “It becomes more normalized.”
People also become fearful. That can lead to more young people illegally arming themselves because they say they need protection, Densley said.
“What’s really going on at the moment is we’re living in a community full of fear,” said David Lindsey, a member of the God Squad, which does community outreach work in St. Paul.
Lindsey said he’s been on both sides of the issue — he was involved in criminal activity when he was younger, went to prison and now he’s out on the streets to try to convince young people to take a different path.
“The fear is not just with the community and the victims, but the fear is also with the perpetrators,” Lindsey said. “These young people are afraid, and we had a saying back in the day that a scared person will kill you.”
GANG TIES IN MANY SHOOTINGS, BUT NOT ALL HOMICIDES
In the months leading up to September, there were 14 homicides in St. Paul, with one to four a month. Since Labor Day, there has been a string of high-profile shootings.
On Sept. 2, as the Minnesota State Fair let out for its last night, there was an eruption of gunfire just off the Fairgrounds that left three young men wounded.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who was working at the Fair two days earlier, said he saw a squabble between rival gang factions in the same area. Fletcher says the shootings also were gang-related.
“We have a small gang war going on in St. Paul, and the only way we’re going to stop it is by arresting the most serious of the offenders, and we better do that soon,” Fletcher said.
For most of the young people in gangs — who join because they’re looking for a place to belong — the focus should be on community groups intervening to show them a different path, Fletcher said.
Falkowski said the majority of the shootings in St. Paul are related to young people involved in gangs, though not all the homicides are.
The killing of Kacey Feiner in the Battle Creek area is a case in which gang ties have come up, although the 19-year-old man charged with murder Friday is a member of a gang affiliated with Feiner’s, according to law enforcement sources.
Feiner, 22, was shot on Glenridge Avenue, between McKnight Road and Winthrop Street, on Sept. 7 because of a “feud over a firearm,” a criminal complaint said.
Feiner was released from prison in June after serving time in connection to a 2015 drive-by shooting that wounded a 17-year-old.
A grandmother of Feiner’s said he was moving his life forward — he had enrolled in college for the fall and was focusing on his music.
The gang was only a minimal aspect of Feiner’s life in the past, and he and his friends had left it behind, his grandmother added.
CHARGES FILED IN 5 OF 8 HOMICIDES
Police have made arrests and Ramsey County prosecutors have charged people in five of the eight homicides this month.
After three homicides in an eight-hour period on Sept. 9 and 10, Police Chief Todd Axtell announced a five-step plan, which includes investigators from other units working on homicide cases.
If homicides aren’t quickly solved, people may be emboldened to commit more violence, so laser-focused investigations are important, said Densley, the criminal justice professor.
In the case of Raumez Ross, police announced arrests the day after the teen was shot on busy Rice Street in the North End during rush hour.
A 15-year-old is accused of Ross’ Sept. 9 fatal shooting, but details about what happened haven’t been made public yet because of the suspect’s age.
Ross had just turned 18 in August, was a senior at Burnsville High School and previously played football, according to the school district.
As a juvenile, Ross pleaded guilty to shooting and injuring another male in St. Paul in 2018. And less than two weeks before Ross was killed, someone shot at him in the same area where he died — at Rice Street and Winnipeg Avenue, according to a police report.
Ross’ family says he was loved and they are mourning him, and nothing in his background justifies the way he was killed.
DRUGS POTENTIAL FACTOR IN SOME RECENT HOMICIDES
For those involved in gangs, drugs or other criminal activity, there is a greater risk of being killed and of being offenders than the average community member, Densley said.
Two of the men fatally shot this month were involved with drugs and one had been in the past.
Terry Edwards, 36, died Tuesday night at Mendota Street and Fremont Avenue in Dayton’s Bluff after an argument over narcotics, according to a murder charge filed against a 38-year-old on Thursday.
On Sept. 2, off-duty St. Paul firefighter Tom Harrigan was shot in his home on Ivy Avenue, off White Bear Avenue, in the Prosperity Heights area. Two brothers are charged in the case and are accused of going to Harrigan’s residence to retrieve a cellphone after Harrigan kicked one of them out for stealing.
Harrigan’s family said he was trying to address substance abuse issues that developed after years of struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder related to his time serving in combat.
Roommates told police that Harrigan often brought different people in to stay at his house, eventually kicking them out for one problem or another before letting others take their place, according to the criminal complaint.
On Sept. 18, RayVell Carter was fatally shot after leaving Bible study with his father and young daughter at St. Albans Street and Aurora Avenue in the Summit-University neighborhood.
Carter, 41, had been out of prison since 2017 after serving time on drug charges. The Rev. William Land Sr., pastor of the church that Carter was leaving and Carter’s uncle, said he saw genuine changes in Carter since he committed his life to God.
No one has been arrested in Carter’s homicide and Land said he didn’t know why it happened. But he said it’s possible someone held a grudge from the past.
KILLING OF GOOD SAMARITAN WAS RANDOM
The reasons behind two of the other recent homicides are murkier.
Javier Sanmiguel Yanez’s killing on Sept. 9 was random. Police said the 31-year-old father of four was a good Samaritan who went to check on people after a crash outside his home at Edgerton Street and Case Avenue.
The driver who caused the crash is accused of opening fire and killing Yanez. The 27-year-old man’s attorney has said he told police afterward he was acting “out of fear for his own safety” when he pulled the trigger.
A couple of hours later, at Marion Street and University Avenue, 27-year-old Nickey Taylor was a passenger in a vehicle when he was shot. Investigators determined people in another vehicle encountered them and began firing.
Taylor loved being a father to his 5-year-old daughter and he was a hard worker, said his mother, Milagro Rosario. He didn’t have a criminal record that would point to him being a target.
“My son wasn’t into anything, so it’s completely ridiculous that this would happen to him,” Rosario said recently.
Police said they continue to investigate the open homicide cases.
GIVING YOUTH A MESSAGE OF HOPE
The Rev. Darryl Spence, co-founder of the God Squad, has been getting calls in the middle of the night about shootings in St. Paul for more than 20 years.
Spence often goes out to homicide scenes to comfort those affected and to try to bring calm. But his aim is to intervene with young people before shootings ever happen.
Spence organized a meeting of about 50 Twin Cities leaders, primarily in the African-American community, and law enforcement brass on Thursday. It’s part of a series of gatherings he’s been holding to push to find funding for volunteer-based efforts to help young people.
“We all agree the work is being done and we can’t stop, but in order for us to be successful, we need to move as a team and be able to hire people,” Spence said.
One of the biggest initiatives Spence is working on aims to bring hope.
“When folks that are 15, 16, even 13 years old aren’t thinking they’re going to make it to 21, that’s a problem,” Spence said. “We want kids to know they’re going to make it, so we need to start dealing with the trauma that’s going on in our community.”
Sarah Horner contributed to this report.
