Man and Woman Charged After Saint Paul Parking Lot Shooting

Oct 18

*The Saint Paul Police Forensics team processes the scene for evidence on Oct. 3.* ***MN CRIME photo***

A man and woman are charged in connection with a shooting earlier this month that left one man critically injured outside a Saint Paul apartment building.

Prosecutors have charged 36-year-old Anthony Tucker Jr. with attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault and 48-year-old Donnetta Marie Simpson with aiding an offender to avoid arrest.

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The charges stem from an Oct. 3 shooting in the parking lot of 1619 Maryland Avenue East in Saint Paul. Both were charged by warrant.

According to the criminal complaints, about 8:40 p.m. that night, around 10 squad cars were in the parking lot investigating a stolen vehicle when two gunshots rang out nearby. One bullet hit an unmarked Ramsey County squad car, and a fragment struck the back of a deputy’s bulletproof vest. Officers ran toward the sound and saw a newer white vehicle speeding away.

A 39-year-old man then walked up to officers, said he had been shot, and collapsed. He had gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

A witness told police that two men had been arguing near a vehicle when one swung at the other, who then fired two shots. The shooter was described as a large Black male, around 6 feet tall and 250 pounds. The witness said a woman with red hair drove the shooter from the scene in a white car.

Investigators found two .40 caliber shell casings near a speed bump in the lot. Surveillance video later identified the shooter as Tucker and the driver as Simpson. Footage from a nearby liquor store about 40 minutes before the shooting showed Simpson, who has short red hair and tattoos on both upper arms, inside the store while a large man sat in the passenger seat of a white Nissan Altima parked outside.

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Additional footage from the apartment building showed Tucker wearing a bluish-purple hoodie with “Hoes Mad” on the front and “I ♥ Making Hoes Mad” on the back — the same clothing seen in the liquor store video. Tucker and Simpson met outside the building, then joined the victim in the parking lot. After a brief conversation, Tucker raised his arm and fired twice as a marked Saint Paul squad car’s emergency lights flashed in the background. Simpson drove Tucker away from the scene in the Altima.

Police later located the Nissan and learned it had been rented by another woman, who told officers she loaned it that night to a man she knew only as “Train.” She gave investigators a phone number linked to Tucker and said he lived near Weber Parkway in Minneapolis. Tucker has a tattoo reading “ATRAIN” on his forearm and lives near that area.

A search of the vehicle under warrant showed the Bluetooth system was paired to “Donetta’s iPhone.”

When investigators later interviewed the victim at the hospital, he said he knew Simpson, who lived in the building, and that they often exchanged words. He said her boyfriend — described as a large man wearing a purple-pink sweater — intervened during an argument and threatened to shoot him before firing twice.

Simpson faces one felony count of aiding an offender to avoid arrest, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted. Tucker faces up to 20 years in prison on the attempted murder charge and an additional 20 years on the assault charge.

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