A 23-year-old St. Paul man was charged with second-degree murder Friday in the death of a 19-year-old man shot to death late Wednesday at a house party in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood.
Brandon D'Angelo Alexander was charged in Ramsey County District Court with fatally shooting a man relatives have identified as Tyshawn A. Hill, who was visiting the Twin Cities from Chicago. Officers found Hill fatally wounded in a house in the 2400 block of Youngman Avenue, near Crosby Farm Regional Park, about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, after a flurry of 911 calls.
Alexander is charged with second-degree murder "without intent" while committing a felony.
According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to the home on a report that someone had been shot. They found a large group of people outside the house, screaming that a victim was lying in the kitchen and that the suspect had run out the back door carrying a handgun and saying, "Anyone else want it?" The suspect himself appeared to be wounded in the arm, they said.
Medics arrived, but the victim could not be revived. The medical examiner determined that Hill had been hit in the upper back by a bullet that went upward into his head, and had bled to death.
Witnesses told police that Alexander, who came to the party intoxicated and tried to appoint himself its "bouncer-enforcer," had been asked to leave after arguing with several partygoers. He left complaining that he was being "disrespected" by young people at the party and that he "needed to show them how to act," the complaint said. He later returned with another man and a woman and fired shots into the kitchen area, hitting the victim, it said.
Just after 1:30 a.m. Thursday, police were called to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale on a report of a man with a gunshot wound in his left arm, the complaint said. Alexander told police he had been shot at a Minneapolis bar, but had no details. Minneapolis police contacted St. Paul police, who had been investigating a blood trail outside the house where the shooting occurred.
After interviewing witnesses and acquaintances of Alexander and studying his cellphone data, police arrested him at the Brooklyn Park home of the woman with whom he had been at the party.
The investigation revealed that all of the shots fired at the party were from one gun, fired from the dining room area into the kitchen, as witnesses described, the complaint says. It does not explain how Alexander himself was wounded.
Officials said this week that police had been called to the house where the party was held at least three times in the past four years.
On Thursday, relatives recalled Hill as a vivacious young man who always looked out for his younger sister.
"That was his queen," said Hill's cousin, Carmelina Bennett, adding that his extended family in Illinois was struggling with the loss. "We just want our cousin back."
Staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report. Pamela Miller • 612-673-4290
