A 32-year-old man who was fleeing after firing shots at St. Paul police on Friday tried to get into a nearby restaurant, but people had heard gunshots and were attempting to close the doors, according to new information released Wednesday.
Still, Tevin Marcel Bellaphant, of St. Paul, got his arm and gun inside the doors of Destiny Café 2 and fired his handgun. Those shots injured two bystanders.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which St. Paul police asked to investigate because officers fired their guns, provided the following information on Wednesday:
Tevin Bellaphant (Courtesy of the family)
St. Paul officers were called just after 11:30 a.m. Friday to a report that a man assaulted a relative and fired a gun in the home before taking a 4-year-old child without permission and leaving the residence in the 1500 block of Jessamine Lane. The relative was a sister of Bellaphant’s and the child a cousin, according to another relative.
Police received information that the man, later identified as Bellaphant, was possibly seen nearby at the Aldi grocery store on Clarence Street near Maryland Avenue.
Sgt. Megan Kosloske and Officer Melissa Leistikow were checking the store when they saw Bellaphant walking in an aisle with the child. They approached and started speaking with him when he shoved Leistikow and ran past her toward the front of the store. He left the child, who was physically unharmed.
The sergeant and officer were chasing Bellaphant “when he suddenly fell to the ground near the register area of the store,” said the BCA statement. “While getting back to his feet, he pulled out a handgun and fired toward the officers.”
Leistikow and Kosloske fired at Bellaphant and, during the exchange of gunfire, Bellaphant fled from the store.
Encountered another officer
Officer Christopher Leon was outside the store in his squad when Bellaphant exited. Bellaphant fired at the officer, who fired back. Bellaphant continued running across Clarence Street and he then tried to get in the nearby restaurant.
The two people at the restaurant who were shot were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. St. Paul police initially said they were both women; the BCA corrected that one is a man and one a woman.
Bellaphant ran from the cafe toward the nearby Cub Foods as Leon emerged from around the building. Leon fired additional shots at him as he pursued the man toward Cub.
Bellpahant went into Cub and officers found him near the front of the store. Police evacuated people from the store and began negotiating with Bellaphant, “who was expressing thoughts of suicide,” the BCA statement said. “Bellaphant shot himself while officers were speaking with him.”
Officers gave medical aid to Bellaphant, who paramedics pronounced dead.
BCA crime scene personnel recovered a handgun and spent cartridge casings. The officers were wearing body cameras, which were activated, and the BCA said they will review them as part of their investigation.
The officers are on administrative leave, which is standard after such an incident. Leon, who is a patrol officer, has five years of law enforcement experience. Leistikow, a K-9 officer, and Kosloske, a sergeant in the family violence unit, each have 10 years of experience.
Prohibited from having a gun
Bellaphant’s family, in a Tuesday statement to the Pioneer Press, said they want people to know that Friday’s events “did not define the type of person he was.”
He lost his mother, uncle and grandmother “and never learned how to cope with the losses,” the statement continued. “He struggled with mental health issues and it led to a drug addiction.”
Bellaphant’s family apologized “to the innocent victims that were shot, and to the people out in the community … affected by this tragic event.”
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Bellaphant was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a 2015 sentence for aiding and abetting first-degree burglary, according to a past criminal complaint. He was charged with attempted murder in 2016 and was convicted of assault in that case.
For help
The St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project can be reached 24 hours a day at 651-645-2824. Help for domestic violence in Minnesota is also available 24/7 through the Day One crisis hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by dialing 988 and the Crisis Text Line can be contacted by texting “Home” to 741741.
