A man shot himself to death Friday afternoon after leading St. Paul police on a rambling foot chase that led to a shootout and prompted evacuation orders at a east side supermarket.
The man was a suspect in a domestic disturbance call on the 1500 block of Jessamine Lane in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, where he left the scene with a small baby after officers arrived.
They confronted him inside an Aldi store 1100 block of Clarence Street where gunfire was exchanged, the man abandoning the baby.
The man was found at a Cub store, located across a parking lot from the Aldi, where he killed himself after police tried talking with him for a short period of time.
"I want to thank the men and women of the St. Paul police department, who behaved in a way that was incredibly brave," said St. Paul police chief Axel Henry. "Clearly (they) stopped something from being way, way worse. I don't think it's wrong to say it's a miracle we don't have greater injuries or deaths on this case."
Two women who suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the incident and it's not known if they are connected to the domestic disturbance call.
"It's part of the investigation, and I imagine they will be interviewed and they will be able to give statements," said Henry.
The women were at Destiny Cafe 2, located between the two grocery stores, and Henry said it does not appear officers fired their weapons at that time in that location.
The baby was not hurt.
"This is one of the most terrifying sequence of events that I can remember in a very long time," said St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter. "This is a scary to have a suspect like that, discharging a weapon, across that many different scenes, across that long of a period of time."
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is leading the investigation, which is standard for all officer-involved shootings.