Girl, 14, Describes Saving Sisters After Armed Shooting Suspect Stole Family Car
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Police in St. Cloud shot and killed a man suspected of exchanging gunfire with St. Paul Police and carjacking a St. Paul woman.
In the incident, a girl lived through the biggest scare of her life at just 14 years old, finding herself looking down the barrel of a gun. The teenager was with her mother and younger sisters when they decided to stop at their favorite St. Paul restaurant Monday afternoon.
Her mother told her to lock to doors but her sister started crying, when she turned her focus for just a second, the unthinkable happened.
"I was about to lock the door and he comes out of nowhere, and he opens the door right away and he points the gun, and he was like, 'Get out of the car,'" the teen said.
She made it inside the restaurant with her 3-year-old and 8-month-old sisters, while the gun-toting man got in the car and took off.
"We called 911 but 911 wasn't working for some reason ... so my mom went down the street where the crime was happening and they had told her that the guy has committed a crime, that he had pointed a gun at one of the police officers and he fought off the other one," she said.
That's when the family learned they were carjacked by the man who had confronted St. Paul officers with a gun and exchanged gunfire with them two blocks away.
"When I heard that he had tried to shoot a cop like I was like ... 'Thank God,' because that day he was not afraid to use a gun obviously," she said. "I'm really thankful he let me grab both of my sisters, honestly."
The hunt for the man continued for more than 24 hours and made its way to St Cloud. He was found sitting in a car at a gas station Tuesday night.
Officers from several agencies used an armored car to block him in. Police say he got out of the car with a gun, multiple officers fired, he died at the scene.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the officer's involved shootings in St Paul and St. Cloud.
