Three People Shot Outside Main Gate of Minnesota State Fair Monday Night
The gunfire occurred shortly after a woman was struck by a car near the fairgrounds and police officers responded to St. Paul’s fifteenth homicide of 2019.
- By Haley Samsel
- Sep 04, 2019
As families headed to their cars on Monday night, three people were shot and injured outside the main gate of the Minnesota State Fair. The shooting was a violent ending to an already turbulent night that included a woman being struck by a car and St. Paul’s fifteenth homicide of the year.
Shortly before the shooting, a 19-year-old woman was hit by a vehicle just a couple blocks away from the fairgrounds. Witnesses said there was a fight or altercation that led to the woman being in the road. The left the scene when bystanders kicked his vehicle, and he is now cooperating with investigators, police said.
“It was a busy and chaotic and disappointing night,” St. Paul Police Department spokesman Steve Linders told reporters.
Police were responding to the pedestrian incident when they heard gunshots about a block away and rushed to the scene. They discovered a man suffering from a gunshot wound, and two other victims appeared at local hospitals later that night, according to local news station KARE 11.
The three men who sustained gunshot injuries, which included two 20-year-olds and an 18-year-old, are expected to survive, according to Linders.
"Everybody was put at risk, there were several shots," Linders told KARE 11. "This is incredibly concerning. It doesn't matter if the person was shooting east or west, north or south, there's a lot of people in that area, and it was incredibly dangerous."
Read More: State and County Fairs Increase Security Measures in Wake of Mass Shootings
Earlier in the evening, officers were dispatched to investigate the city’s fifteenth homicide of 2019, which took place in east St. Paul. No arrests had been made in any of the cases as of Tuesday morning, according to the police department.