Star Tribune
Man arrested after teen shot outside St. Paul rec center
Police have made an arrest after a teenage boy was shot and suffered life-threatening injuries Wednesday afternoon at a rec center in St. Paul.
Officers responding to a reported shooting about 4 p.m. found the teen at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center at 270 Lexington Pkwy. N., police posted on Twitter on Wednesday night. The boy was taken to Regions Hospital.
A 26-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting and is being held on suspicion of first-degree assault, police posted later on Twitter. A handgun was also recovered.
Police do not believe there is any continued threat to the public, Mayor Melvin Carter said on Twitter. The city activated its Emergency Operations Center in response to the shooting, Carter said.
Several nearby residents and parents drove by the taped-off parking lot early evening to look for their children after they were evacuated.
Central High School, which is across the street from the rec center, was locked down after the shooting from about 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., school officials said.
Thursday classes were canceled “to ensure students have time and space to process this traumatic event,” Principal Cherise Ayers said in an email to families.
Staff will be at the school to provide support for students and families, and meals will be available for students to pick up. Sports events and after-school activities also are canceled, Ayers said.
She advised anyone who needs to talk with someone to call the main office at 651-744-4900.
Tammie Johnson, a former community recreation specialist who worked at the rec center and lives nearby, said she was upset about the shooting and that more should have been done to prevent it. She said she resigned after she was attacked by a teenage girl.
“It’s so sad,” Johnson said. “I told them last year if they don’t get it under control this was going to happen.”
A 65-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a pickup truck near Christmas Lake Friday afternoon as she was walking through a crosswalk, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
The woman was crossing Highway 7 around 1 p.m. when she was hit by a 2019 Ford F-150 turning left from Christmas Lake Road onto the highway headed east, the State Patrol said in its report. The intersection is just east of Excelsior, between Saint Albans Bay and Christmas Lake west of Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Minnetonka police, and other agencies responded to the fatal collision. The State Patrol has not released the identity of the pedestrian.
The driver has not been arrested. Agencies are still investigating the collision, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Alcohol was not involved in the crash, the State Patrol said.
Former trooper Shane Roper, 32, had his last day Tuesday, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Roper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
In July, Roper was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was also charged with criminal vehicle operation related to five other people who were seriously injured in the incident.
The criminal complaint states that Roper had been pursuing someone “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense” as he exited Hwy. 52 onto 12th Street SW. As he neared the intersection with Apache Drive, he reportedly turned his lights off and continued to accelerate with a fully engaged throttle.
Roper was traveling at 83 mph with his lights and siren off as he approached the intersection, a Rochester police investigation found. The trooper’s squad car slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Olivia Flores, which was heading west and turning into the mall.
Flores died from the blunt force injuries. She was an Owatonna High School cheerleader and set to graduate June 7. There were two other people in the car with Flores.
Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement following the charges that Roper violated his duty in “a gross fashion.”
Roper told investigators he was not paying attention to his speed at the time of the crash, and that he believed his lights were still activated when he exited the highway.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. His blood alcohol content measured at 0.325% after officers administered a preliminary breath test at HCMC, according to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.
In his first court appearance Wednesday, Bailey told a judge his use of alcohol is not a problem. He has an extensive history of drunken driving convictions, starting in 1985 in Wisconsin. Additional convictions followed in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998, according to court records. Two more convictions followed in 2014 and 2015.
A Hennepin County judge set his bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, that he abstain from drinking alcohol, avoid Park Tavern and stay away from the victims and his family.
His next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Jeff Day contributed to this report.
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