St. Paul leaders gather near scene of triple homicide after police identify victims

St. Paul police have identified the victims of Sunday’s triple homicide and gathered with city leaders Monday afternoon to respond to the incident.

Police were called to the 900 block of Case Avenue East at around 4:30 p.m. Sunday on a reported shooting. There, officers found two adults suffering from gunshot wounds, and those victims directed officers inside to other victims. Inside, three people were declared dead.

RELATED: Five shot, three dead after St. Paul shooting

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the three homicide victims Monday as 33-year-old Angelica Gonzales, 42-year-old Cory Freeman and 44-year-old Maisha Spaulding, all from St. Paul.

Family members of Gonzales, pictured below on the far right, told KSTP they don’t know what happened and don’t know any of the others involved in the incident.

Monday afternoon, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Interim Police Chief Jeremy Ellison and other leaders joined the African American Leadership Council and St. Paul Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and called on those responsible to turn themselves in to police.

St. Paul city and community leaders gather for a press conference on Sept. 5, 2022, regarding Sunday’s triple homicide.
(KSTP-TV)

“What happened last night is just plain unacceptable,” Carter said, adding that those responsible will be held accountable.

Ellison called it “a sad day for our community” and noted the investigation remains active. However, Ellison said investigators believe they know who is responsible for the shooting, although he declined to confirm whether it was one person or multiple people.

Sunday, police described the scene as “one of the most complicated scenes we have investigated in a long time.” Ellison said that was due to the number of victims and “just the tragedy.”

The department said officers responded to 17 calls at the address over the past year for issues ranging from disorderly conduct to aggravated assault. When asked about those calls, Ellison noted the number of calls doesn’t always mean something bigger is going on but added that the department is going to “take a hard look at whether we missed anything or could’ve done something differently but at this time it appears that we’ve done everything we could’ve done, given the information at the time.”

Additionally, the department said it hasn’t found anything indicating it was a domestic incident.

With kids heading back to school Tuesday, Sasha Cotton, the vice president of the African American Leadership Council, encouraged parents to remind their children that community members are working to make the city as safe as possible and added, “that means communities have to stand together when tragedies like this happen and we have to take care of each other.”

Sunday’s deaths are the 25th, 26th and 27th homicides of the year in St. Paul, according to police. The other two victims remained in stable condition as of Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to call St. Paul police at 651-266-5650.

Click the video box above to watch Monday’s full press conference.