SMSU student arrested, charged in St. Paul shooting

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·4 min read
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A 20-year-old Southwest Minnesota State University student with a warrant for attempted murder in St. Paul was recently arrested on campus.

After Tyrese Alonzo Johnson’s arrest, charges were unsealed against him. He’s accused of shooting a 20-year-old in the face in St. Paul’s North End.

Around 3 p.m. April 6, officers were sent to 444 W. Maryland Ave. about a shooting. Officers found 13 spent casings near a parking lot entrance to Maryland Supermarket and Golden Grill.

Soon after, a 20-year-old drove himself to Regions Hospital in a Chevrolet Impala that had a flat front tire, heavy front-end damage and bullet holes in the front windshield and driver’s side. A bullet had entered one side of the driver’s cheek and exited the other.

A 19-year-old also arrived at the hospital in the Impala. He said he and the 20-year-old went to 444 W. Maryland Ave. together, and he spoke to a cousin he saw leaving the store.

He said he got back in the Chevrolet, felt it accelerate and heard gunshots. He felt the shots come through the windshield and he put his head down to avoid being shot. A bullet grazed the back of his head and hospital staff found a bullet fragment in the hood of his sweatshirt.

Police later found a spent bullet, a scale and two bags of suspected marijuana in the car, along with three bags of suspected marijuana in a backpack the 19-year-old had carried.

Video showed shooting

Surveillance video from the business showed the Chevrolet backed into a parking spot in front of Golden Grill at 2:24 p.m. A Honda Odyssey arrived in the lot about 2:50 p.m., followed by an Infiniti QX60.

The Honda’s driver walked toward the Chevrolet and, within feet of it, pulled a handgun from a satchel. Meanwhile, a man exited the Infiniti’s passenger side and shot at the Chevrolet as it sped out of the lot. The Infiniti passenger continued to fire at the Chevrolet as it fled on Maryland Avenue.

Later in April, police received information about a phone call between a Department of Corrections inmate and a relative. They discussed the shooting and said the 20-year-old victim “was hanging out at the store on Maryland trying to sell weed when he was shot” by a gang member, according to the criminal complaint.

Police identified Johnson, of St. Paul, as the shooter who arrived in the Infiniti, the complaint said. Another man, now 20, is accused of being the person from the Honda who pulled a gun. He is charged with threats of violence.

Law enforcement arrested Johnson without incident on the SMSU campus in Marshall, Minn., last Tuesday. There was no threat to the campus community, according to a university spokesman.

Johnson made his first court appearance in the case in Ramsey County on Tuesday. An attorney representing him Tuesday had no comment.

Store owner working with police

A 17-year-old was wounded in a shooting in the same parking lot last week. A 21-year-old was fatally shot in the parking lot in 2019 and a 21-year-old was killed during a robbery outside the store in 2022.

The owner of Maryland Supermarket, Ali Alfureedy, said in a 2021 lawsuit against the city of St. Paul that the city council was scapegoating his property for crime in the neighborhood. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, which was about rezoning for a tobacco products shop, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld that decision last month. His attorney, Benjamin Loetscher, is preparing a petition seeking Minnesota Supreme Court review.

Alfureedy has “cooperated with police and the North End Neighborhood Organization,” Loetscher said Tuesday. The business has been issuing trespass notices to people loitering, put in a fence as requested by the neighborhood organization, and providing police with surveillance footage “so they can solve crimes,” Loetscher said.

Alfureedy “is equally invested in reducing crime and having a safe space for the business’s customers and would look forward to working with whoever had any ideas to help reduce the greater violence problem on the North End,” Loetscher said.

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