St. Paul police share details on shooting, crash that left man dead

Good? Everybody good? Okay, I'll start. Afternoon, my name is Steve. Last name is Lentsch. It's L-E-N-T-S-C-H. I'm a sergeant with the St. Paul Police Department, currently assigned as one of its public information officers. Here to talk to you today about a homicide investigation that's currently underway in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood to provide a little background information. Just after 7 a.m. this morning, we had several people call 911 reporting that two vehicles had crashed into one another. One of those vehicles then crashed into a tree. Officers, along with St. Paul medics, responded. They located the driver that was in the vehicle that struck the tree, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Unfortunately, medics pronounced the driver, who was an adult male, deceased at the scene. Officers secured the area so our homicide investigators could begin their investigation. I would like to add that just prior to that crash occurring, we did have people report the sound of gunshots in the area, in that general area. Obviously, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner will be the one to positively identify the victim in this case and also conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. This is our city's 16th homicide. Last year at this point we were at 11. I would also like to add that if anybody has any information regarding this homicide to call our homicide unit at 266-5650. Any further information regarding this homicide will be pushed out via our X account as well as our St. Paul police. Facebook page. Again, this investigation is in its infant stages, so I may not be able to answer a lot of your questions, but I'm willing to take some. There's been no arrests made at this point? No arrests have been made, correct. It's still a very active scene in investigation. Anything you can say about if there was a gun or bullet casings or anything found? Still, that scene is still being processed. So I don't want to speak on anything that may or may not have been recovered as of yet. But like I said, we do have members of our forensic services unit out at the scene too. Do you know if the victim was shot before the vehicle crash? That's a great question. We just don't know at this time. That's obviously going to be a focus of the investigation, as when exactly that victim was shot. Was it prior to the crash? Was it during the crash? Was it just right after? That's something that the investigators are going to have to sort through to figure out the timeline of the events. It's believed that someone shot this person, not that it... Possibly could have been self-inflicted. It is believed that someone else shot him at this time, yes. It's an adult male. Adult male, yep. So, do you know the make and model of both vehicles that were in that vehicle-vehicle crash, or are you still looking for another one? We're, I don't have the make and models of the victim's vehicle, or if they're, we don't even know if the suspects, suspect or suspects, were in a vehicle. That's obviously still something that our homicide investigators are trying to determine where, you know, where everything occurred and how it occurred. Was it inside a vehicle? Was it outside? Is this area... It's a Dayton's Bluff area. I'm sorry, I forgot to add. It's a 900 block of Mounds Boulevard, so right along the bluffs there. I apologize about that. I did see two different areas roped off, the 900, Dayton, and then on the other side of Earl, there was another area parking lot taped off. Is that related to this? It is, yep. There are two different scenes that are cordoned off right now. Um, yeah. Yes, they are related to one another. So evidence was found in that other area? I don't want to say evidence was found. There's potential of evidence being in that general area. So rather than start small. We tend to start big on those crime scenes, but yes, they are both related. What was the state of the victim vehicle? Was it pretty totaled? So I stopped out there early on. And, um, it... I did notice that it had a heavy front end damage, which is indicative of it striking the tree that it struck. There was also a light pole down. I assume it also hit the light pole. Yes, it did, yes. We have indication that it did strike the light pole and then a tree. What time did you say this happened? It was just after 7 a.m. this morning is when we started getting the 911 calls coming in on it. And was it just one occupant in the victim's vehicle? It was a lone occupant, yep, yep. The victim was a lone occupant in that vehicle. Good. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.