Victims identified in St. Paul triple homicide: "This is a sad day for our community"

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Three people are dead and two others are injured after a shooting late Sunday afternoon in St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Interim Police Chief Jeremy Ellison and other officials spoke on the deaths at a press conference Monday afternoon. 

"We're tired of these press conferences. We're tired of these late night calls," Carter said. "What happened last night is unacceptable."

Tired but united in their effort to bring peace to a community plagued with gun violence.

Carter and other community stakeholders expressed their anger and commitment to stop the killing.

"We're tired of these incidents playing out in our community over and over and over and over again," Carter said.

RELATED: 3 dead, 2 hurt in shooting on St. Paul's east side

Police say officers were called to the 900 block of Case Avenue East at about 4:30 p.m., where they found two injured people outside, and three deceased people inside a residence.

Also on Monday, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office identified the deceased as 33-year-old Angelica Gonzales, 42-year-old Cory Freeman and 44-year-old Maisha Spaulding -- all of St. Paul.

Family and friends of Gonzales put up balloons and flowers outside the house where the shooting happened. Her daughter, Tatiana, told WCCO her mother was a beautiful person.

Loved ones were also remembering one of the other victims, Cory Freeman.

"Pretty much everybody's lives, everybody growing up, everybody doing everything, he was there," said Cherokee Warren, a close friend. "He was a helping hand for everybody that we had. Anything we had going on, you could pretty much call Cory for."

Warren says Freeman was like true family, with an open spirit and always the life of the party.

"We all still grieving and going through it right now trying to figure out what exactly took place and why was he even in that, you know, vicinity for it to happen to him?" she said. "He was most definitely loved."

Neighbors are unnerved by the violence and doing their best to explain it to the children.

"I'm just telling them, 'I love you. Give me a hug,' I mean, 'Things happen in the neighborhood,'" said Janis Jaja. "What do you really tell them?"

The deceased are the city's 25th, 26th and 27th homicide victims of the year. No arrests have been made

"We are ruling things out at this point. We're really trying to figure out what exactly what it is. I know investigators have ruled out it is not domestic related," said Interim Police Chief Jeremy Ellison. "This is a sad day for our community."

What we do know is police were called to the address for disorderly conduct and aggravated assault more than 17 times in a year. Investigators are doing a deep dive into those calls to see if there were any signs that would have hinted that this tragedy was possible.

Ellison says tips from the community are helping, but more are needed to make sure they get the persons responsible off the street.

"If you know who can help us, tell the individual who is responsible for this to turn himself in, to turn herself in as soon as possible. When anybody is out in community and who has done something like this, they are a danger to everybody," said Tyrone Terrill, president of the African American Leadership Council.

Mayor Carter spoke to the family and friends grieving these sudden, shocking losses.

"Our hearts go out to you," Carter said. "Our community as a whole is going to rally and try to figure out how we can be as supportive as possible to all of those families in this horrible time."

The two injured victims are adults and remain in stable condition.