Man dies in murder at St. Paul home where police encounters were frequent

St. Paul police were investigating a homicide that occurred Friday in which a man died at a home near Lake Como where police were frequently called.

It is unclear exactly how the man was killed, said Sergeant Mike Ernster, a police spokesman. He said a “certain level of trauma” indicated homicide, but officers “do not yet know exactly what caused his death.”

This brings the total number of murders in St. Paul this year to 14.

According to Ernster and a neighbor, Sean Devaney, around 7:30 a.m. Friday, a woman began running up and down an alley, screaming that a man was no longer breathing.

The woman was later taken to a police station for questioning but was not arrested, Ernster said.

Officers entered the home in the 900 block of Hatch Avenue, found the unconscious victim and encountered an aggressive dog. Ernster said the dog was shot after biting an officer. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

“After the shot was fired, sirens went off everywhere,” Devaney said.

According to Ernster, police have been called to the house 25 times this year alone, often for domestic disturbances and property crimes.

Devaney said the man who lived in the house was in his 30s and often had visits from his partner. He said he had frequently heard screaming and other disturbances there in recent years.

Many neighbors were surprised to hear about the incident Friday, and about half a dozen of them attended a police press conference at the scene Friday afternoon. They said the area has little crime aside from the occasional garage break-in.

“The neighborhood is fantastic. It’s perfect and quiet,” Devaney said.

Violence Free Minnesota, a coalition of 90 programs working to end relationship abuse, projected 36 intimate partner violence-related homicides across the state in 2023 (www.vfmn.org/we-remember-2023). That’s the highest number the state has recorded since 37 such homicides were recorded in 2013.

Editor Paul Walsh contributed to this story.