Prosecutors have charged a Saint Paul man with three counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of three people inside the leasing office of a Highland Park apartment complex, a killing they say followed a dispute over a parking-garage contract.
Tsegaab Ademassu Binessu, 30, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court in the deaths of Adam Jeffrey Wilwerding, 43; Dena Marie Silcox, 56; and Nansi Fuentes-Zambrano, 25.
Each count of second-degree intentional murder carries a maximum of 40 years in prison. A judge set Binessu’s bail at $10 million and he is due to make his first court appearance Wednesday morning.
READ MORE → Ramsey County coverage
Saint Paul police were called around 4:10 p.m. on July 20 to the apartment building on the 1500 block of Saint Paul Avenue after several callers reported gunshots and screams, according to the complaint. Officers found Wilwerding and Silcox dead in the leasing office. They found Fuentes-Zambrano fatally shot in the back area of the office; she appeared to have been trying to escape through a window when she was shot. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers recovered 21 spent 9mm casings from the office, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, Binessu had called the leasing office to cancel his parking-garage contract and was told he was still obligated to pay it. He said he would come talk about it in person and was told the answer would be the same. He went to the office a short time later.
Surveillance video from the office captured the shooting, the complaint says. It allegedly shows Binessu talking with a man and a woman, then lifting his shirt, pulling a gun from his waistband and chambering a round. He shot the man three times, then three more times after he fell, and shot the woman behind the desk six times. He then walked down a hallway out of the camera’s view, and the video captured a woman’s screams followed by four more gunshots before it ended.
A man told police his roommate, Binessu, had confessed to the shooting, according to the complaint. The roommate said Binessu had recently quit his job as a trucker, planned to enlist in the military and had sold his car that day. Hours later, Binessu told the roommate he had argued with apartment management and ended up killing three people, and that he was walking to a police station. Officers confirmed Binessu had sold his vehicle to CarMax that day.
Binessu was arrested in St. Louis County driving a car that belonged to one of the victims, the complaint says. Officers found what appeared to be newly purchased camping gear inside.
After being read his rights, Binessu agreed to speak with investigators and described a series of personal losses, the complaint says. He said he had spent seven years unsuccessfully trying to bring his wife and children to the United States from Ethiopia, that the immigration process contributed to his divorce and separation from his children, and that he had lost everything he cared about. He acknowledged going to the leasing office but did not explain what happened there, and asked for an attorney, ending the interview.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined all three died of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled each death a homicide.
