Shortly before 10:00 PM on August 31, 2022, officers responded to a shooting directly across from Born’s Bar where a man was reportedly down on the ground. Multiple 911 callers reported hearing 40-50 gunshots, and one caller reported that it sounded like automatic gunfire. Officers found KW [DOB REDACTED] face down on the sidewalk in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to his head at [ADDRESS REDACTED], St. Paul, Ramsey County. KW did not have a pulse. Medics responded and pronounced KW dead at the scene at 10:09 PM. Surveillance video showed a 2017 Jaguar F-Pace leaving the area at a high rate of speed immediately after the shooting.
JT is the Jaguar’s registered owner. Surveillance video showed JT, KW, and several other people standing outside of JT’s Jaguar on the north sidewalk of Manitoba Avenue just east of Rice Street. Gunshots were fired towards JT, KW, and the Jaguar at around 9:55 PM. The gunshots originated from an alley between Rice Street and Sylvan Street south of Manitoba Avenue. The volley of gunfire killed KW as he fell to the ground where he had been standing when the gunfire began. When the shooting stopped, DL got out of the passenger side of the Jaguar, pulled something from his rear waistband, and ran towards the alley where the shots that killed KW came from.
DL fired a handgun with a trigger activator down the alley. The speed of the muzzle flashes indicate DL fired 20-30 bullets from an automatic handgun. DL ran back to the Jaguar and got into the front passenger seat. JT got into the driver’s seat and the Jaguar left at a high rate of speed. Officers found 29 spent shell casings near 135 Manitoba where DL fired. Officers found another group of casings to the west of 122 Manitoba in the alley: eight.357 caliber casings and three.45 caliber casings. Officers determined that there was a direct line of fire from the location where the.45 and.357 casings were recovered to where KW stood when he was shot and killed.
Officers spoke to a woman who was in a room with her daughter when she heard 15-20 gunshots that came from south of Winnipeg Avenue, a 30-second pause, and then another 15-20 gunshots that came from the area of Manitoba Avenue. The woman looked out and saw a young Black man get into the front passenger seat of a Black SUV that drove east on Winnipeg Avenue. The woman thought the SUV was newer and had a partial license plate of JUL. A woman and her son approached officers at the shooting scene. The son had been on the “Citizens App” when he saw a social media post about the shooting.
He noticed a comment that read, “My bro melly steady getting em.” He took the comment to mean Melly was involved in KW’s murder. Surveillance video showed a dark-colored SUV arrived and backed up in the alley behind [ADDRESS REDACTED]. The parking lights flashed twice as if a key fob had been used to lock the doors. Two people walked from where the SUV parked and hid behind the garage at 122 Manitoba for a short time. The people entered the alley and each fired guns at KW. The two people ran back to the SUV, and its lights flashed again as if the SUV’s doors were unlocked.
