A bullet traveled through a bedroom door of a St. Paul home day care and hit a woman caring for three young children, police said.
The woman was hit in the arm about 12:30 p.m. Monday at the home in the 1500 block of Albemarle Street in the city's North End. She told St. Paul police she thought the bullet had come through the wall, according to a criminal complaint charging the homeowner's son, Jesse David Holloman, 28, with reckless discharge of a firearm.
The day care's license was immediately suspended.
According to the complaint:
The children told police they heard a loud "pop" and then saw their caretaker bleeding from her arm.
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"Officers observed that, based on the trajectory, the shot came from a gun from the basement bedroom in which Holloman resided," the complaint said.
He was the only other adult in the home at the time.
Police found a bullet hole in a downstairs bedroom door and recovered the bullet that had struck the woman.
Holloman, whose hand was bleeding, denied being the shooter. He told police that he was in the bedroom when he heard the gunshot and then saw the woman had been hit. He said he believed the bullet had come through a window and that he cut his hand when he went to investigate.
Police found a broken window but determined it had been broken from inside the home rather than outside.
They also found surveillance cameras outside the house. With the homeowner's permission, they watched the recordings.
Holloman
is seen leaving the house through the back door just after the shooting, carrying a red shoulder bag. He puts the bag in the garage.
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Seven minutes later, he runs to a maroon van that has pulled up to the house. He directs the driver to the alley, runs to the garage, retrieves the bag and goes to the alley.
When he returns to the house, he no longer has the red bag. One minute later, police arrive in response to the 911 call from the woman hit by the bullet.
Officers found a Glock Model 19 9mm pistol with a live RWS 9mm Luger round in an upstairs bedroom, but the bullet that hit the woman was not of that type.
Holloman declined to talk to police at the Ramsey County Jail, saying he wanted his lawyer.
A message left for the day care operator regarding her license was not immediately returned. She is entitled to appeal the suspension.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.