Star Tribune
St. Paul man admits to gun charge stemming from shooting, chase and crash into Lowertown restaurant
A St. Paul man has admitted to a weapons charge in connection with his involvement in a shooting last year that led to a police chase and crash of a stolen SUV into an empty restaurant.
Moeshea I. Hart,19, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to illegal possession of a handgun outfitted to be fired like a machine gun. The rolling mayhem included gunfire and one SUV driver chasing another until the restaurant got in the way.
Hart remains jailed without bail ahead of sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled. According to the plea agreement, federal guidelines call for Hart to receive a prison term ranging from slightly more than three years to just shy of four years. However, federal judges have full discretion when sentencing defendants and are not bound by the guidelines calculation.
According to the guilty plea and related court documents:
A 911 call reporting shots fired at about 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2023, sent police to N. Luella Street and Wilson Avenue in the Conway neighborhood of St. Paul. Witnesses there told officers they heard automatic gunfire coming from a black Jeep chasing a white Jeep on westbound Wilson.
A few blocks away, officers located a black Jeep with a rear window that appeared to have been shot out. When officers turned around in their squad car to pursue the Jeep, the driver sped away. The pursuit continued onto Interstate 94, but officers stopped chasing for safety reasons when the driver exited at E. 6th Street.
The black Jeep, driven by Hart, then ran a red light, hit another vehicle 4 miles from the shooting scene and finally crashed through the Ox Cart Ale House at the corner of E. 6th and Wall streets.
Police arrested Hart and found on the floor of the empty restaurant a loaded 9-millimeter pistol with a high-capacity magazine inserted and equipped with a switch, a device that turns a handgun into a fully automatic machine gun.
About 11 9mm discharged cartridge casings were spotted in and around the driver’s area of the Jeep, including one outside the vehicle on the restaurant floor.
Police determined that the Jeep, with a license plate not registered to the vehicle, had been reported stolen from St. Paul about two months earlier.
LAFAYETTE, Wis. — About 25 children and adults were injured Wednesday when a wagon carrying them overturned at a western Wisconsin apple orchard.
The children, parents and chaperones were on a field trip to the orchard in Lafayette when one of two wagons being pulled by a tractor turned sideways and rolled over, Chippewa County Sheriff Travis Hakes told reporters. Hakes said the tractor was traveling at a low speed when the wagon rolled over while going downhill.
Three people suffered critical injuries, while injuries to five others were considered serious. Authorities didn’t say how many of the injured were children.
The elementary school-age children attend a school in Eau Claire. Lafayette is northeast of Eau Claire.
After about five minutes and several warnings that students participating in the protest would be suspended,, the protesters exited Northrop and Cunningham continued her speech. They later gathered outside on the mall afterwards to shout, “Cunningham, you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Cunningham recounted the story of Norman Borlaug, the U alumnus and agronomist whose research in wheat saved millions from starvation, and said she would prioritize keeping a college education affordable for students.
Cunningham actually took over presidential duties on July 1, replacing Interim President Jeff Ettinger. She oversees a budget of more than $4 billion to run the university’s five campuses, which enrolled more than 68,000 students and employed 27,000 people during the last academic year.
She was chosen for the job last winter over two other candidates: Laura Bloomberg, president of Cleveland State University and former dean of the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and James Holloway, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico. She is the U’s second woman president, following Joan Gabel who held the office from 2019 to 2023.
Cunningham will be paid more than $1 million per year — about $975,000 in base pay and an additional $120,000 in retirement contributions. The compensation puts her in the top quarter of Big Ten university presidents.
Sgt. Gordon Blackey, once a security guard to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, allegedly admitted to tracking the woman’s movements in her vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
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