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2 charged in Minnesota bar shootout that killed 1, left 14 injured

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two men are facing a dozen charges each in connection with a fatal shootout in a Minnesota bar just after midnight Sunday that killed one woman and left 14 other people, including both suspects, injured.

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Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr., 31, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is charged with one count of second-degree murder and 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder, while Devondre Trevon Phillips, 29, of Las Vegas is charged with 12 counts of attempted second-degree murder, KARE reported, citing a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Both Brown and Phillips remain hospitalized, the TV station reported.

“I can’t be more proud of the life-saving measures they took with our fire department, paramedics — bring calm to a chaotic situation — just a tragic situation where there was so much blood, so much chaos, conflict going on at the time, and gathering the evidence necessary to bring to the prosecutor to help us hold people accountable,” St. Paul Chief of Police Todd Axtell told KSTP.

The chief called Sunday’s shootout “another example of somebody pulling a gun out of their waistband, firing at each other to solve that difference, to settle that dispute.”

“I know there have been people who have been arrested in this case who aren’t legally allowed to carry a gun; in some point, we need to draw that line to ensure accountability so that future victims don’t have to go through the same thing,” Axtell told the TV station.

A third man, 32-year-old Jeffrey Orlando Hoffman, was taken into custody in connection with the shooting late Sunday, but as of 5 p.m. Monday he had not been charged with a crime.

In a scene that Axtell earlier described as “hellish,” first responders found 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley dead on the floor of Seventh Street Truck Park, a bar and food hall in downtown St. Paul.

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According to the criminal complaint, surveillance footage showed Phillips and Brown firing at each other. Prosecutors said that Phillips was between Brown and Wiley and that one of Brown’s shots appeared to strike Wiley in the back.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Wiley died when the bullet to her back penetrated her left lung and heart. Meanwhile, some of the 12 other wounded bystanders were found inside the bar among the spent shell casings and bullet fragments, while others were found lying on the street and sidewalk outside. All are expected to survive, KARE reported.