TheeBadOne
05-09-2005, 09:18 PM
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St. Paul officer shot dead; 2 arrested
Two suspects were arrested and booked today on suspicion of murder in the early-morning shooting death of a St. Paul police officer, officials said.
Police said Antonio Alexander Kelly, 27, and Harry Jerome Evans, 32, were being held on probable cause in the shooting of Sgt. Jerry Vick, which happened across the street from Erick's bar about 2:20 a.m.
St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington announced the arrests at 12:10 p.m., saying Kelly was arrested at 3:30 a.m. and Evans was arrested at 10:15 a.m. Evans was covered with mud and appeared to have been hiding.
Vick, a member of the department's vice squad, was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Harrington said. Vick had been shot in an alley near 7th and Forest Streets after exchanging shots with two men around 2:20 a.m. The gunmen fled on foot.
Police continued to search the area throughout the morning, with more than 100 officers from throughout the metro area looking for other suspects and evidence. At least 10 people had been arrested by the time the police perimeter was taken down around 11 a.m. Police said only Evans and Kelly were still being held by mid-afternoon in connection with the shooting.
Police said Vick and his partner, Sgt. Joe Strong, were on duty on a prostitution case they'd been tracking for about six months. However, it appears the shooting was not related to that case.
Apparently, the two suspects were hanging around the bar around 2 a.m., stopping to talk with people, possibly as a prelude to robbing them, authorities said.
Vick and Strong talked with the men and told them to move along. The officers then separated and each went to his own car. When Vick encountered the men near his car, they exchanged a few words before the men reportedly pulled guns and fired several shots at Vick, who was hit several times; Strong returned fire but apparently missed the suspects, who fled on foot.
Officers dressed in camouflage went door to door much of the morning, as a National Guard helicopter hovered overhead to aid in the search.
Police found a gun in the area where one of the primary suspects was arrested, Harrington said. The investigation remains "very active," Harrington said. Ballistics tests on the gun and an autopsy were planned, and police continued to gather physical evidence at the scene.
Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call 651-266-5820.
Witnesses and surveillance tapes from area businesses helped police identify the suspects in custody, Harrington said.
"This is a grim day. It's a day that the lights of one of the great heroes have gone out," Harrington said.
Vick's family
Harrington and a police chaplain went to Vick's home in Afton to inform his wife, Connie. Several of Vick's friends from the police department accompanied them on the early-morning visit.
"We brought friends to soften the blow, but there's no way to soften this blow," Harrington said.
Vick was a well known and highly respected officer, Harrington said.
"Jerry loved what he was doing. Being a cop was phenomenal for Jerry," Harrington said. "He reminds us to never give up that joy for the job. The department's gonna miss the hell out of him."
"I don't think that there is a greater tragedy to befall a community than the loss of a police officer," Mayor Randy Kelly said. "As mayor ... I know I speak for every citizen of St. Paul in expressing our greatest sorrow to Sgt. Vick's family and to his two children."
Vick, 41, was a 16-year veteran of the St. Paul force, Harrington said.
He had received two medals of valor. One came in December 1990 for rescuing a child from a burning home. The other was awarded in 1997, after Vick shot and killed an armed suspect at a crime scene.
Witnesses to today's shooting said they heard 10 to 12 shots, and authorities said Vick was shot multiple times.
St. Paul police closed down city streets within 1 1/2 miles of the shooting site, although freeways remained open this morning. Scores of officers were working with dogs and heavy weapons support in carrying out a door-to-door search.
After the shooting, police fanned out on the East Side, searching house to house in the area near 7th Street and Minnehaha Avenue.
Residents
Bill Harrington , who lives a block away from the shooting, was awakened at 6 a.m. by officers, who said a police dog had sniffed at his basement window. Police entered and searched his house but found nothing.
As he stood on a street corner, holding hands with his young daughter while waiting for a school bus this morning, he said: "I can deal with all this, but I'm worried about how it will affect her."
Richard Beasley, who lives near the shooting scene, said he heard 10 or 11 gunshots after 2 a.m., and went to check on his sleeping children. In the morning, he left with his children to pick up his wife from her overnight job. He was able to leave the cordoned-off area, but police wouldn't let him return home.
Amanda Ropella, 23, who lives near the scene, said she was awakened around 2 a.m. by the sounds of male voices arguing in an alley. She said she heard at least one distinctive voice, but didn't hear any gunshots.
Ropella said she stayed up until 2:30 a.m., but the voices had faded in the distance.
Except for the immediate area around the shooting site, most traffic flowed freely during morning rush hour on the East Side. Police cars, their lights flashing, were parked on corners as far north as Arcade and Magnolia Streets.
At Breaking Free, a non-profit organization on University Avenue that helps former prostitutes return to a normal life, women painted signs this morning, saying: "We lost a good man" and "In loving memory."
Women at the center said they'd received dozens of calls from women who'd been arrested by Vick but said they respected him and knew that he cared. One said Vick had passed her, as she stood soliciting on a corner, and told her that she was better than that, and shouldn't have to be working the streets.
Community
Police from many neighboring communities -- including Minneapolis, Mendota Heights, Roseville, West St. Paul, Maplewood, Rochester, Oakdale, Bloomington, Woodbury, airport police, transit police, the state BCA and the National Guard air wing -- helped with the search, along with State Patrol officers and Ramsey County sheriff's deputies. Officers with U.S. Secret Service vests also searched for evidence at the scene.
The state Senate had a moment of silence for Vick this morning. Gov. Tim Pawlenty said, "We, as a state, are mourning that loss.''
A community gathering was scheduled for Sacred Heart Church, 840 E. 6th St., at 7:30 p.m.
The incident that led to the last fatal shooting of St. Paul officers occurred just blocks from where police were searching for suspects in today's case.
In that earlier incident, on Aug. 26, 1994, rookie officer Ron Ryan Jr. was sent to check on a man sleeping in a car.
He roused small-time drug dealer Guy Harvey Baker from his sleep and took the 26-year-old's ID back to his squad car to do a routine check. Baker had stopped in St. Paul on his way to Canada. Baker, fearing that Ryan would discover an Iowa arrest warrant, pulled a revolver from his lap and shot Ryan, then took the officer's gun.
In the massive manhunt that followed, officer Tim Jones' police dog, Laser, picked up Baker's trail and tracked him to a fish house where he was hiding. With the dog whining outside the fish house door, Baker shot Jones through the window with Ryan's gun. Baker ran out, grabbed Jones' gun and killed Laser when the dog bit his leg.
Baker was arrested later that day. He pleaded guilty and is serving two life sentences with no possibility of parole.
web page (http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5388895.html)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I may be attending his funeral Wed.
http://www.nleomf.com/images/thumb/4444.gif http://www.dreamlyrics.co.uk/ubb/graemlins/tear.gif
St. Paul officer shot dead; 2 arrested
Two suspects were arrested and booked today on suspicion of murder in the early-morning shooting death of a St. Paul police officer, officials said.
Police said Antonio Alexander Kelly, 27, and Harry Jerome Evans, 32, were being held on probable cause in the shooting of Sgt. Jerry Vick, which happened across the street from Erick's bar about 2:20 a.m.
St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington announced the arrests at 12:10 p.m., saying Kelly was arrested at 3:30 a.m. and Evans was arrested at 10:15 a.m. Evans was covered with mud and appeared to have been hiding.
Vick, a member of the department's vice squad, was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Harrington said. Vick had been shot in an alley near 7th and Forest Streets after exchanging shots with two men around 2:20 a.m. The gunmen fled on foot.
Police continued to search the area throughout the morning, with more than 100 officers from throughout the metro area looking for other suspects and evidence. At least 10 people had been arrested by the time the police perimeter was taken down around 11 a.m. Police said only Evans and Kelly were still being held by mid-afternoon in connection with the shooting.
Police said Vick and his partner, Sgt. Joe Strong, were on duty on a prostitution case they'd been tracking for about six months. However, it appears the shooting was not related to that case.
Apparently, the two suspects were hanging around the bar around 2 a.m., stopping to talk with people, possibly as a prelude to robbing them, authorities said.
Vick and Strong talked with the men and told them to move along. The officers then separated and each went to his own car. When Vick encountered the men near his car, they exchanged a few words before the men reportedly pulled guns and fired several shots at Vick, who was hit several times; Strong returned fire but apparently missed the suspects, who fled on foot.
Officers dressed in camouflage went door to door much of the morning, as a National Guard helicopter hovered overhead to aid in the search.
Police found a gun in the area where one of the primary suspects was arrested, Harrington said. The investigation remains "very active," Harrington said. Ballistics tests on the gun and an autopsy were planned, and police continued to gather physical evidence at the scene.
Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call 651-266-5820.
Witnesses and surveillance tapes from area businesses helped police identify the suspects in custody, Harrington said.
"This is a grim day. It's a day that the lights of one of the great heroes have gone out," Harrington said.
Vick's family
Harrington and a police chaplain went to Vick's home in Afton to inform his wife, Connie. Several of Vick's friends from the police department accompanied them on the early-morning visit.
"We brought friends to soften the blow, but there's no way to soften this blow," Harrington said.
Vick was a well known and highly respected officer, Harrington said.
"Jerry loved what he was doing. Being a cop was phenomenal for Jerry," Harrington said. "He reminds us to never give up that joy for the job. The department's gonna miss the hell out of him."
"I don't think that there is a greater tragedy to befall a community than the loss of a police officer," Mayor Randy Kelly said. "As mayor ... I know I speak for every citizen of St. Paul in expressing our greatest sorrow to Sgt. Vick's family and to his two children."
Vick, 41, was a 16-year veteran of the St. Paul force, Harrington said.
He had received two medals of valor. One came in December 1990 for rescuing a child from a burning home. The other was awarded in 1997, after Vick shot and killed an armed suspect at a crime scene.
Witnesses to today's shooting said they heard 10 to 12 shots, and authorities said Vick was shot multiple times.
St. Paul police closed down city streets within 1 1/2 miles of the shooting site, although freeways remained open this morning. Scores of officers were working with dogs and heavy weapons support in carrying out a door-to-door search.
After the shooting, police fanned out on the East Side, searching house to house in the area near 7th Street and Minnehaha Avenue.
Residents
Bill Harrington , who lives a block away from the shooting, was awakened at 6 a.m. by officers, who said a police dog had sniffed at his basement window. Police entered and searched his house but found nothing.
As he stood on a street corner, holding hands with his young daughter while waiting for a school bus this morning, he said: "I can deal with all this, but I'm worried about how it will affect her."
Richard Beasley, who lives near the shooting scene, said he heard 10 or 11 gunshots after 2 a.m., and went to check on his sleeping children. In the morning, he left with his children to pick up his wife from her overnight job. He was able to leave the cordoned-off area, but police wouldn't let him return home.
Amanda Ropella, 23, who lives near the scene, said she was awakened around 2 a.m. by the sounds of male voices arguing in an alley. She said she heard at least one distinctive voice, but didn't hear any gunshots.
Ropella said she stayed up until 2:30 a.m., but the voices had faded in the distance.
Except for the immediate area around the shooting site, most traffic flowed freely during morning rush hour on the East Side. Police cars, their lights flashing, were parked on corners as far north as Arcade and Magnolia Streets.
At Breaking Free, a non-profit organization on University Avenue that helps former prostitutes return to a normal life, women painted signs this morning, saying: "We lost a good man" and "In loving memory."
Women at the center said they'd received dozens of calls from women who'd been arrested by Vick but said they respected him and knew that he cared. One said Vick had passed her, as she stood soliciting on a corner, and told her that she was better than that, and shouldn't have to be working the streets.
Community
Police from many neighboring communities -- including Minneapolis, Mendota Heights, Roseville, West St. Paul, Maplewood, Rochester, Oakdale, Bloomington, Woodbury, airport police, transit police, the state BCA and the National Guard air wing -- helped with the search, along with State Patrol officers and Ramsey County sheriff's deputies. Officers with U.S. Secret Service vests also searched for evidence at the scene.
The state Senate had a moment of silence for Vick this morning. Gov. Tim Pawlenty said, "We, as a state, are mourning that loss.''
A community gathering was scheduled for Sacred Heart Church, 840 E. 6th St., at 7:30 p.m.
The incident that led to the last fatal shooting of St. Paul officers occurred just blocks from where police were searching for suspects in today's case.
In that earlier incident, on Aug. 26, 1994, rookie officer Ron Ryan Jr. was sent to check on a man sleeping in a car.
He roused small-time drug dealer Guy Harvey Baker from his sleep and took the 26-year-old's ID back to his squad car to do a routine check. Baker had stopped in St. Paul on his way to Canada. Baker, fearing that Ryan would discover an Iowa arrest warrant, pulled a revolver from his lap and shot Ryan, then took the officer's gun.
In the massive manhunt that followed, officer Tim Jones' police dog, Laser, picked up Baker's trail and tracked him to a fish house where he was hiding. With the dog whining outside the fish house door, Baker shot Jones through the window with Ryan's gun. Baker ran out, grabbed Jones' gun and killed Laser when the dog bit his leg.
Baker was arrested later that day. He pleaded guilty and is serving two life sentences with no possibility of parole.
web page (http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5388895.html)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I may be attending his funeral Wed.
http://www.nleomf.com/images/thumb/4444.gif http://www.dreamlyrics.co.uk/ubb/graemlins/tear.gif