Star Tribune
Two charged with attempted murder in St. Paul drive-by shooting that injured 10-year-old
A man and woman have been charged with attempted murder in connection with a New Year’s day drive-by shooting in St. Paul that seriously injured a 10-year-old child.
Prosecutors believe Morris Robert Chie Ryan, 26, and Kelci Marie Meyers, 28, were involved in a drive-by shooting that night which punched nearly a dozen bullet holes into the home of a 10-year-old boy, critically injuring him. The child’s condition has since improved. Ryan and Meyers were charged on Thursday with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and a dangerous weapons violation. Both attended their first court hearings for the case Friday morning.
Charging documents say that the boy and his family were in their home on the 700 block of Sherburne Avenue sometime before midnight on Dec. 31. His mother recorded video of herself dancing in the kitchen with the 10-year-old and his siblings as music played in the background. The boy began playing with Legos when gunshots rang and the mother heard a man yell expletives from the alley behind her home.
She moved the children out of the kitchen as another sibling carried the 10-year-old from the floor to an upstairs bedroom. When officers arrived at the home by around 11:56 p.m., finding a trail of blood leading to that bedroom. “… a 10-year-old boy lay on the bed with family members applying pressure to a gunshot wound to the boy’s stomach and buttock,” the charging documents read. He was taken to Regions Hospital with a life-threatening injury and acute blood loss.
Officers found seven 9mm bullet casings in the alley behind the boy’s home, as well as 10 bullet holes in the rear window near the kitchen.
The mother suspected her former neighbor was a suspect, telling police that the man was a nuisance who continued to threaten residents after moving out of his apartment there. He “said he would make sure (the mother) and her family had to move since he had to move out” she told police, adding that she obtained a harassment restraining order against the man. It was not served by the time of the shooting.
Neighbors’ video footage recorded a dark SUV circle the alley behind the family’s apartment twice before stopping in near the family’s kitchen window. That footage recorded the sound of 14 gunshots before the sedan left the scene.
Traffic cameras revealed the sedan was a 2007 GMC Yukon registered to Ryan. Additional footage captured Ryan and Meyers exiting the Yukon at a Speedway gas station a minute after the child was reportedly shot. Cell phone data confirmed Ryan’s phone was at that gas station and at the scene of the crime that night.
Police later arrested the pair, recovering seven handguns from Meyer’s home in Hastings.
Ryan told police that he stayed inside on New Years day to watch YouTube videos at his mother’s home in New Hope. He stopped answering questions and requested a lawyer when investigators asked about his relationship with Meyers.
Meyers said she spent that day with Ryan and his relatives in Hastings.
When shown pictures of the SUV, Meyers said that it looked like her truck. She said nothing or responded “I don’t know what to say” when asked about the shooting, and shook her head “no” when asked if she called the shots during the shooting.
Meyer’s next court date is scheduled for March 7. Ryan’s is set for March 8. Bail for both has been requested at $700,000, and both suspects have been ordered not to contact the child’s mother.
Nine votes were needed to override Frey’s veto, but the vote was 7-6 in favor — not enough to overturn the resolution, which expressed solidarity with “nonviolent campus activism opposing war and supporting Palestinian human rights.”
The university has disputed that the protest at Morrill Hall was nonviolent, saying protesters spray-painted security cameras, broke interior windows and barricaded exits, trapping staffers for “an extended period of time.” University police and Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies arrested 11 protesters.
The university said the protesters caused over $67,000 in damage to doorways, walls and flooring; violated multiple university polices; and caused emotional harm to employees as they piled up furniture and copy machines to prevent workers from leaving.
The vote to override was supported by Council Members Robin Wonsley, Jason Chavez, Aurin Chowdhury, Jeremiah Ellison and Jamal Osman, as well as Council President Elliott Payne and Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai.
Those voting to sustain the veto were Council Members Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw, Katie Cashman, Emily Koski, Andrea Jenkins and Linea Palmisano.
That’s the same breakdown as the original 7-5 vote to approve the resolution, except that Jenkins was absent.
Bartho said she was heartbroken that such an act came to Northfield, but “we’re trying to make the most of it.”
The tree was donated by Paisley Gardens, a boutique garden center in Northfield. Decorated in purple garlands and big round ornaments, the tree will also be surrounded by lit-up trees and a thousand luminaries.
The Winter Walk, now in its 26th year, includes live music, fireworks, carolers, firepits and plenty of shopping.
If anything will put a damper on the evening, it’ll be temperatures in the single digits Thursday night, Bartho said. Not the actions of a Grinch with the heart of a dead tomato splotched.
“It’s not going to keep people away,” Bartho said. “People are coming down anyway.”
The Hennepin County Board approved a 5.5% increase to its property tax levy Thursday to fund a $3 billion budget for 2025.
Property taxes fund about $1 billion of the county’s $2.5 billion operating budget and $463 million capital improvement plan. About 60% of the county operating budget comes from state and federal dollars dedicated to various social programs.
Hennepin County is Minnesota’s second largest government, after the state government. Overall, county spending will grow by $87 million, or 3.6%, next year.
About $55 million comes from the property tax increase and the rest from savings. County leaders noted that federal pandemic aid is spent and tapping savings will make up short-term gaps without impacting long-term finances.
Much of the new spending will go toward rising salaries and benefits for the county’s 10,000 employees. The size of the workforce is not expected to change, and county officials are finalizing new contracts with the 17 unions that represent about ⅔ of workers.
More than 4,000 workers represented by six different AFSCME units approved new three-year contracts Wednesday that include 4% raises each year. That is on top of the regular increases some workers receive for their experience.
The new budget also includes $10 million toward covering the cost of uncompensated care at HCMC, the safety-net hospital overseen by commissioners and the Hennepin Healthcare System board.
