St. Paul PD highlights surveillance photos of looting suspects, seeks tips

At one St. Paul liquor store that was burglarized, looted and set on fire in May, hundreds of people stole items in a nearly seven-hour period. An insurance adjuster estimated $300,000 worth of inventory was taken.

Prosecutors recently charged a 23-year-old St. Paul woman with felony burglary, saying she entered Snelling Avenue Fine Wines six times and left with stolen merchandise in each instance. She’s also accused of burglarizing the Walgreens on Grand Avenue and Big Top Liquors and Sun Foods at University Avenue and Dale Street the same day.

Since the St. Paul Police Department’s Civil Unrest Investigative Taskforce began its work, the Ramsey County attorney’s office has brought charges in more than 60 cases, including against the 23-year-old woman. Approximately 40 more cases are in the pipeline for charging, said Cmdr. Axel Henry, who leads the task force.

After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, there was widespread arson and looting in Minneapolis and then St. Paul, primarily on May 28 in the capital city.

The St. Paul task force previously released surveillance photos of suspects and asked the public for tips, and in recent weeks they’ve doubled down on those efforts. The department is regularly posting suspect photos on social media and requesting people with information to come forward.

CHARGES ACCUSE PEOPLE OF LOOTING MULTIPLE BUSINESSES

While the majority of the cases haven’t been solved with tips, Henry said he cannot emphasize enough how helpful they are.

“It is a really good illustration that this isn’t a police problem, this is a community problem,” he said. “We’re a part of that community, so we work together.”

Among the surveillance photos that police have highlighted lately:

• A man seen throwing a rock at Snelling Avenue Fine Wines near University Avenue
• A person caught on video damaging property at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car on University Avenue near Lexington Parkway
• A man suspected of looting a Walgreens and the Lululemon store on Grand Avenue

Some have already been charged with felony burglary of Lululemon, including two men and a woman accused of stealing items from that store, along with Ax-Man Surplus on University Avenue.

The same men are also charged with burglarizing a Walgreens on May 28. A 35-year-old St. Paul man damaged a cash register and took items from the pharmacy, according to a criminal complaint.

Someone used a silver baseball bat with red gripping to break glass on the pharmacy door to get inside, and police found a bat matching that description when they pulled over a vehicle June 1 in St. Paul in relation to a shooting.

The 35-year-old, who was in the vehicle, was wearing Lululemon shorts with the tags still attached, the complaint said. There were several items of Lululemon clothing in the store that had security tags on them.

Another man charged with burglary, in this case of Kendall’s Ace Hardware on Payne Avenue, is accused of being part of a group that stole about $10,000 worth of power tools from the store early May 29, according to a criminal complaint filed Sept. 1 against Donell Deon Flowers, 25.

Six days later, Flowers fatally shot a rival gang member in Minneapolis, Hennepin County prosecutors say in a murder charge filed in July.

TASK FORCE FOCUSED ON FELONY-LEVEL CASES

There have been a couple instances of people seeing themselves in surveillance photos posted by St. Paul police and contacting the department, Henry said.

An investigator reported one person was in the background of a photo — not the suspect in the forefront — “and the individual called up and said, ‘Hey, that’s me,’ ” Henry said. “They were not involved in a more serious thing and we complimented them on coming forward and being honest.”

Those cases were discussed with charging attorneys, and because the people weren’t involved in serious crimes, decisions were made not to charge them.

The task force isn’t focusing on low-level crimes — “we were not set up to try to give everyone a bunch of tickets … for trespassing or taking a candy bar,” Henry said, but they continue to pursue cases against those involved in the most damage and theft.

INVESTIGATIONS WILL CONTINUE

The police department moved eight investigators from various units, along with a crime analyst, to launch the task force in June. Some of the investigators have been doing double duty, while others have had to put their regular assignments on the back burner, Henry said.

“We’re slowly going to have start going back to some form of normality,” Henry said, which means they’ll be rolling back the task force’s work over the next two to four weeks.

The investigations into looting and property damage won’t end, though, Henry said. The department’s crimes against property unit will continue to work on the cases with support from task force members, who will have returned to their full-time assignments.

Henry said he underestimated how much public support there would be for the task force. People have told them they’re pleased the department is taking the crimes seriously “and advocating for these businesses,” Henry said.

For people who have tips about suspects in surveillance photos, Henry wants them to know two things: they can be anonymous and any bit of information is helpful.

“Even if they’re not 100 percent certain, we’re not going to go arrest someone based on a tip,” he said. “We’re going to do an investigation to determine if it is that person or not.”

As of the middle of last week, prosecutors had filed 52 cases against adults and eight against juveniles; the majority were burglary charges, according to police records.

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HOW TO HELP

People can view suspect photos posted by St. Paul police at bit.ly/UnrestPhotos.

The department asks people with tips to contact them at 651-266-5900 or SPPD-CUITF@stpaul.mn.us. People with photos or videos of arson, theft, looting or property damage can also use those contacts to reach police.

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