As a 42-year-old drank at a St. Paul bar, a bartender and a man appeared to monitor his movements and communicate with other people, according to the suit filed this week. When he walked out, he was robbed and shot.
The victim was initially able to talk to police, but went into cardiac arrest and is not expected to survive, the complaint said.
Now the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has charged the bartender and a man. Two other people have also been charged, but their cases remain secret until their arrest.
The incident happened on October 30, when the 42-year-old went to Born’s Bar on St Paul’s Rice Street at around 3.45pm. He spoke to investigators at the hospital the next day and said that when he went outside, a little man he didn’t know but had seen asked him for a cigarette. The people with the man had their hoods on, which he noticed because it wasn’t cold.
He said that “the fight was going on at the time” and that several people were involved. He reported that he was lying on the ground and money was coming out of his pockets. He thought he had about $4,500 in cash because he planned to buy “a small bicycle.”
Someone shouted, “Be pop (expletive)!” and he was shot and felt a burning sensation in his stomach.
Officers responded to the bar in reference to the shooting around 5:45 p.m. on Oct. 30. The victim lay on the ground in front of the bar with a gunshot wound just below his navel. Fire department medics took him to Regions Hospital and he was immediately put into surgery.
Police found a cross pendant and silver-gold chains, which were broken, on the floor. There was also an iPhone.
Evidence on video, phones
The victim told police that the bartender, whom he called Erica, “was over-pouring the drinks she had made for him,” according to the complaint. He paid in cash.
The owner of Born’s Bar declined to comment on the case on Friday.
Items police recovered at the scene included a wallet, which the victim told police did not belong to him. Police discovered it had a driver’s license belonging to Edward G. Robinson, 43, of St. Paul. The iPhone found at the scene belonged to Robinson.
Robinson’s phone indicated that Erica Ruth Hampton, a 41-year-old bartender at Born’s who has a son with Robinson, called him around 4 p.m. Bar surveillance video showed Hampton with a phone to her ear as she was mixing drinks at the time.
Video also showed Robinson and Hampton’s 24-year-old son and a man in a pink sweatshirt arriving at the bar at 4:25 p.m.
The victim bought another drink from Hampton at 4:53 p.m. and went out onto the patio, where Hampton followed him and apparently sent a text message on her phone, the complaint said.
At 5:06 p.m., Robinson received a call from a 44-year-old man and then Robinson contacted a 39-year-old man.
At 5:37 p.m., Robinson and the 39-year-old “appeared on camera and positioned themselves on the sidewalk outside Born’s Bar,” according to the complaint. Robinson and Hampton’s son and the man in the pink sweatshirt got out of a car that Hampton registered.
The 44-year-old texted Robinson at 5:42 p.m., saying, “He was acting like he was afraid to come out,” and the complaint noted that the man was apparently monitoring the victim’s location and movements .
Robinson kept watch through the bar’s windows. The victim left the bar and Robinson soon began fighting with him, the complaint said. Robinson’s 39-year-old son and the man in the pink jersey “joined the fight,” the complaint said. The 39-year-old waved a gun at the victim’s head and the man in the pink sweatshirt also held a gun.
The 39-year-old put his gun to the victim’s torso and shot him. Analysis of the shell casing found at the scene showed it was fired from the same weapon used in a shooting in Milwaukee in 2022. The 39-year-old has ties to that area, the complaint said.
The bartender said she didn’t tip anyone
On November 1, the victim’s wife contacted investigators and reported that he had fluid in his lungs and blood in his stomach. He went into cardiac arrest, but doctors revived him. He was on life support when the charges were filed against Hampton on Friday.
Police arrested Hampton, of St. Paul, on Thursday. She said she had been working at the bar on Oct. 30 and the owner called her back “because something was going on with her son and his father,” according to the complaint. She said she ran back to the bar and looked at the surveillance footage with the owner.
Hampton said an officer asked the owner if he recognized anyone in the surveillance video.
“She did not respond to the officer’s question because she had nothing to do with it,” the complaint states about her response to police.
Hampton said she remembered the victim being at the bar, but not him leaving because she was off work at the time. When police told her that records showed she was tipping her son while calling him minutes before the victim left the bar, Hampton said she had nothing to do with the incident. She said she didn’t call anyone and told them about the money the victim had at the bar.
Hampton is accused of aiding and abetting an offender – accessory after the fact. Richardson is charged with aiding and abetting first-degree assault and robbery. He has prior convictions for third-degree assault, terroristic threats and federal drug charges, the indictment said.
The pair’s lawyer could not be reached for comment on Friday.
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