A St. Paul man was acquitted Friday in the killing of 22-year-old Alex Becker, who was shot six times in the alley behind his North End house after walking home from work last December.

Ramsey County District Judge JaPaul Harris found Shaun Lamar Travis, 26, not guilty of second-degree intentional murder for aiding and abetting in the death of Becker, who prosecutors say was ambushed Dec. 27 in an apparent robbery by Travis and his two accomplices.

Becker’s mother, Tara Becker, cried as she walked out of the courtroom with family and friends.

Detwan Cortell Allen, 19, of St. Paul, and Arteze Owen Kinerd, 21, of Minneapolis, have also been charged with aiding and abetting in Becker’s murder, and have pleaded not guilty. Allen’s jury trial began Monday before Judge Paul Yang.

Travis, of Brooklyn Park, waived his right to a jury trial. A bench trial before Harris ran from Oct. 25 to Nov. 6, with the prosecution and Travis’ attorney filing their written closing arguments Nov. 29.

Becker, a 2019 graduate of Como Park Senior High School, was described by his aunt Hidy Hammarsten as a “gentle, young man who spent his free time playing video games with his younger brothers, watching movies with his sister, and helping his friends and parents in any way he could.”

Investigators found seven 9mm shell casings near Becker’s body. During Travis’ trial, prosecutors did not take a position on who fired the bullets, instead arguing that he “worked together with others to kill Alex Becker.”

Harris said that although Travis admitted to being with Kinerd and Allen in the alley at the time the shots were fired, the state failed to prove all of the elements of the intentional charge to find Travis guilty.

Prosecutors Saraswati Singh and Jessica Plotz argued in their closing arguments that Travis did not need to have pulled the trigger to be found guilty.

“(Travis’) intentional active participation to cause Alex Becker’s death by out numbering, out manning, out gunning, by surprising Alex as a group to kill Alex is enough,” they wrote.

“Travis, Allen and Kinerd ambushed Becker,” prosecutors wrote. “They ambushed an easy target. They ambushed someone who was alone. They ambushed someone who did not have anyone nearby on the street to help him. They ambushed him at night when no one else was around walking home from work. They ambushed someone who was unarmed. They ambushed him using a deadly weapon.”

Allen and Kinerd also face kidnapping and first-degree aggravated robbery charges related to a carjacking in the Merriam Park neighborhood less than three weeks before Becker’s murder.

Prosecutors have filed motions in court of their intent to introduce those charges at both murder trials “for the purpose(s) of motive, knowledge, identity and common scheme or plan.”

Video surveillance shows suspects

It was Becker’s first shift back to work at Goodin Company after a Christmas break. After clocking out at 11:15 p.m. from the Como Avenue heating and plumbing parts company, where his dad works, Becker began his walk home in the snow-covered streets. Becker had been saving up for a car, his mother, Tara Becker, testified at Allen’s trial.

Surveillance video showed a black sedan with a damaged passenger side headlight go past Becker as he was walking north on Kent Street near Hatch Avenue around 11:51 p.m. He turned into his alley between Lawson and Hatch avenues, and Allen, Kinerd and Travis ran down the alley after him, according to prosecutors.

Another resident’s surveillance system then recorded four rapid gunshots followed by three rapid gunshots and a final gunshot.

Tara Becker testified at Allen’s trial that she was awake, waiting for her son. At about midnight, she heard gunshots. “They sounded close,” prosecutors wrote. “She called Alex. It went to voicemail. She called several times. Alex never picked up.”

She went to the front side window of the house, and saw Travis and Kinerd running east east on Lawson Avenue, right in front of her home, prosecutors say. She saw a black sedan drive east, which was consistent with home surveillance captured by a neighbor.

The first police officers arrived just after 12 a.m. Dec. 28 and found Becker lying on the ground, not breathing and with no pulse. His body was still warm. Medics arrived and pronounced him dead.

Gun in waistband

Prosecutors during trial showed video surveillance footage of who they said was Travis with a “dark, rigid and rectangular object” sticking out of waistband as he ran into the alley. St. Paul police Sgt. John Keating testified the object was consistent with the handle of a gun.

A magazine base plate, base plate part and spring were found next to Becker’s body along with the 9mm shell casings. The magazine base plate was tested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which determined that Allen’s DNA could not be excluded as a contributor to the DNA mixture that was found on it.

“The element does not require identifying which of the perpetrators fired a gun or how many guns were used that night,” prosecutors wrote. “It was at least one of the three perpetrators that fired the murder weapon. And they were together when the gun was fired.”

Gun recovered

Officers on Jan. 2 found the stolen Camry parked three blocks from Broadway Flats, which was Kinerd’s apartment building in North Minneapolis. It was the same apartment where a cellphone that was taken in a recent home invasion robbery in St. Paul pinged during an investigation, the charges say.

Investigators learned that Allen, Kinerd and Travis had left the apartment less than two hours before the shooting and that they wore the same distinct clothing as the men who followed Becker into the alley, the charges say. Surveillance video showed them returning to the apartment about a half-hour after the killing, and staying there for the night.

Police arrested Kinerd at a gas station near his apartment Jan. 3. A handgun was found hidden on a store shelf where he had ducked down after seeing officers. Forensic ballistic tests came back showing the gun was used in Becker’s killing, the charges say.

Later, in an interview with investigators, Kinerd was evasive when asked whether he was among the three men seen on video returning to his apartment shortly after the killing. He said it wasn’t him and didn’t know them. When asked where he was the night of the murder, he refused to answer.

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Before he steps down from public office in January, St. Paul City Council Member Russel Balenger wants to rename a section of Concordia Avenue for the old Rondo neighborhood.

City Council Member Chris Tolbert, the outgoing chair the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, hopes to make it easier for the city to sell surplus land to neighboring property owners in cases where the buyer “will make best use of the property for the well-being of the community.”

As one of her last acts in office, outgoing Council President Amy Brendmoen plans to vote to reduce the city’s overall number of tobacco shop licenses, limiting the field through attrition.

Also before the lame-duck council are proposed ordinance amendments making it easier to apply for outdoor amplified sound permits, enable the city to assess building owners for litter pick-up in downtown skyways, and allow planter beds in public boulevards — a widespread practice that technically runs afoul of city ordinance.

With four of the seven St. Paul City Council members bowing out of office at the end of the year, the council is looking to take up a bevy of last-minute changes to city ordinances, from long-awaited housekeeping items to some more fundamental policy statements about the city’s collective values.

“There’s way more than usual,” said Brendmoen, in a recent interview. “I will call them ‘tidying up’ ordinances — things that council members are looking to get passed before their term is up. None of them are particularly contentious.”

Here’s an overview:

Cannabis

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday is poised to adopt a resolution to begin an “adult use cannabis zoning study,” a first step toward determining where cannabis sellers can be situated in the city.

Under state law, local governments may not require additional licensing from cannabis businesses beyond a state license, but they may register cannabis businesses and enforce certain zoning regulations that limit their locations. Cities can collect registration fees and 10% of the tax revenue from the sale of cannabis products.

The zoning study will consider potential zoning ordinance amendments, zoning code definitions and distance requirements. The goal is to have the study approved by the St. Paul Planning Commission by May and in front of the city council for final approval next June.

Tobacco shop licenses

The city council on Wednesday is likely to reduce the number of available tobacco shop licenses through attrition, meaning existing tobacco shops would be allowed to keep their licenses but not transfer them. Tobacco shop licenses would be reduced from 150 to 100, which is right around the city’s existing number of active licenses. Tobacco product shop licenses for flavored tobacco and electronic delivery devices would drop from 25 to 15.

In addition, penalties for underage tobacco sales, sales of single cigarettes or sales of flavored tobacco other than specialty shops would switch to criminal misdemeanors, up from $500 to 1,000 fines, license suspensions and revocations. Tobacco vending machine licenses also would be eliminated, though you’d be hard-pressed to find one in St. Paul.

The changes, sponsored by six council members, are supported by the Tobacco-Free Alliance and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and opposed by the Minnesota Association of Retailers.

Micro-dwellings on church grounds

Also Wednesday, the council is expected to vote to allow micro-units of housing on church grounds as an “accessory use” to religious institutions. Working with the organization Settled, St. Paul in 2021 allowed a “sacred settlement” of six units at the Mosaic Christian Community Church of the Nazarene on Wheelock Parkway on a temporary basis.

Following recent changes in state law modeled on Settled, the council will adjust the zoning code to mirror state statute. A majority of the units must be set aside for the chronically homeless. The amendment is sponsored by Council President Amy Brendmoen and Council Member Nelsie Yang.

Skyway litter pick-up

When a downtown St. Paul building owner fails to pick up litter, remove graffiti or fix a broken window in the skyway system, the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections may soon have the power to issue abatement orders. Under a proposed ordinance amendment, DSI would have the authority to hire a contractor to fix the problem and then assess the building owner’s property taxes.

Building owners will be required to submit a skyway video surveillance plan to DSI by March 31 of each year. The amendment, sponsored by Council Member Rebecca Noecker, will come before the council Wednesday for final adoption. It’s supported by the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

Amplified sound permits

In St. Paul, it may soon get a tad easier to get noisy.

Organized events seeking variances from the city for outdoor music and amplified sound above the city’s stipulated sound levels currently have to appear before the St. Paul City Council for permission, a time-consuming process that rarely draws any testimony in opposition. Sound-level variance applications must be submitted 60 days in advance.

The Department of Safety and Inspections is already responsible for assessing each sound level variance request and making recommendations to the city council. An ordinance amendment before the city council would allow DSI staff to approve the requests administratively through a permit process, reserving public hearings only for requests that do not meet permit requirements.

In addition, St. Paul Parks and Recreation would have jurisdiction over issuing and enforcing amplified sound permits in the city’s parks. City staff noted that many other cities approve sound level variance requests through an administrative process.

The Highland District Council, which supports the changes, noted it had received a single comment from a resident about amplified sound in 15 years. A final vote on the amendment, which is sponsored by Brendmoen and Yang, is likely Wednesday.

Disposition of city property

Under St. Paul’s “disposition of city property” ordinance, the city can sell unused city land by public auction or through sealed bids, and if that’s unsuccessful, through a private negotiated sale. In recent years city officials have found that those methods aren’t always the simplest and most efficient ways of getting surplus land into the hands of responsible owners, especially when it comes to transferring remnant land to contiguous property owners.

An ordinance amendment sponsored by Tolbert and Noecker would give the city council more leeway in determining how to dispose of city land, provided that a staff report first explains whether the property is only usable by contiguous property owners or is marketable.

Staff would also need to verify that the property could not be used by a different city department, and “a potential buyer’s use of the property and financial benefit to owning the property, and any economic or cultural benefits to the surrounding community.” A sale could potentially take place below market value, if other sales efforts have failed. Disposition would require five council votes.

A public hearing is scheduled Wednesday.

Raised planter beds in public boulevards

If you’re confused about what kinds of plantings and ornamental structures are allowed in the boulevard in front of your home, you’re in good company.

St. Paul’s municipal code currently bars placement of raised planter beds in the public right-of-way, though it’s not uncommon to see residents flout those rules — knowingly or unknowingly — and do it anyway.

Council Member Chris Tolbert recently sponsored an ordinance amendment that would allow temporary, removable storage containers in the public right-of-way with a $20 encroachment permit, provided that the structure is no more than 12 inches tall. A public hearing is scheduled Wednesday.

Rondo Avenue

Before construction of Interstate 94 eliminated structures by the hundreds, a historically-Black community called St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood home. Rondo Avenue, which ran from Griggs Street to Kellogg Boulevard, was renamed Concordia Avenue in 1964.

A proposal sponsored by Council Member Russel Balenger would reclaim some of that history by renaming Concordia Avenue between Griggs and Kellogg, reverting it back to Rondo Avenue in recognition of the community that lived there in the mid-1900s. The name change was unanimously supported by the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission on Nov. 20.

The name change has also drawn the support of Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University, who wrote in a Nov. 10 letter to the city council that he hoped the name change would “perpetually memorialize the importance of the Rondo community to the city of St. Paul.”

Balenger, who had originally submitted the proposal as an ordinance, plans to resubmit it to the council as a resolution.

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By ANTHONY McCARTNEY (AP Entertainment Writer)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan O’Neal, the heartthrob actor who went from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in “Love Story” and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic 9-year-old daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon,” died Friday, his son said.

“My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us,” Patrick O’Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, posted on Instagram.

Attempts to reach O’Neal representatives were not immediately successful.

He did not give a cause. Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, a decade after he was first diagnosed with chronic leukemia. He was 82.

“My father, Ryan O’Neal, has always been my hero,” Patrick O’Neal wrote, adding, “He is a Hollywood legend. Full stop.”

O’Neal was among the biggest movie stars in the world in the 1970s, who worked with many of the era’s most celebrated directors including Peter Bogdanovich on “Paper Moon” and Stanley Kubrick on “Barry Lyndon. He often used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy or sinister backgrounds behind their clean-cut images.

O’Neal maintained a steady television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, appearing for stints on “Bones” and “Desperate Housewives,” but his longtime relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life kept him in news.

Twice divorced, O’Neal was romantically involved with Fawcett for nearly 30 years, and they had a son, Redmond, born in 1985. The couple split in 1997, but reunited a few years later. He remained by Fawcett’s side as she battled cancer, which killed her in 2009 at age 62.

With his first wife, Joanna Moore, O’Neal fathered actors Griffin O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie “Paper Moon,” for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. He had son Patrick with his second wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.

Ryan O’Neal had his own best-actor Oscar nomination for the 1970 tear-jerker drama “Love Story,” co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer. The movie includes the memorable, but often satirized line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

The actor had at times strained relationships with three of his children, including estrangement from his daughter, squabbles with son Griffin and a drug-related arrest sparked by a probation check of his son Redmond. The personal drama often over-shadowed his later career, although his attempts to reconcile with Tatum O’Neal were turned into a short-lived reality series.

O’Neal played bit parts and performed some stunt work before claiming a lead role on the prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place” (1964-69), which also made a star of Mia Farrow.

From there O’Neal jumped to the big screen with 1969’s “The Big Bounce,” which co-stared his then-wife, Leigh Taylor-Young. But it was “Love Story” that made him a movie star.

The romantic melodrama became one of Paramount Pictures’ biggest hits and collected seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. It won for best music.

O’Neal then starred for Bogdanovich as a bumbling professor opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1972 screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?” The filmmaker cast him the next year in the Depression-era con artist comedy “Paper Moon.”

O’Neal played an unscrupulous Bible salesman preying on widows he located through obituary notices. His real-life daughter, Tatum, played a trash-talking, cigarette-smoking orphan who needs his help — and eventually helps redeem him.

Although critics praised both actors, the little girl’s brash performance overshadowed her father’s and made her the youngest person in history to win a regular Academy Award. She was 10 when the award was presented in 1974. (Younger performers such as Shirley Temple have won special Oscars.)

The elder O’Neal’s next major film was Kubrick’s 18th century epic “Barry Lyndon,” in which he played a poor Irish rogue who traveled Europe trying to pass himself off as an aristocrat.

Filming the three-hour movie was tedious work, however, and Kubrick’s notorious perfectionism created a rift between him and the actor that never healed.

O’Neal then reteamed with Tatum in Bogdanovich’s early Hollywood comedy “Nickelodeon” (1976). But the film was a flop and they never worked together again. An attempt to capitalize on his “Love Story” character, Oliver Barrett, with the sequel “Oliver’s Story” (1978) resulted in another flop.

Father and daughter drifted apart as Tatum O’Neal grew older, with the elder actor learning about his daughter’s marriage to tennis great John McEnroe by a belated telegram, Ryan O’Neal wrote in a 2012 book about his relationship with Fawcett.

“A door inside me locked the morning the telegram came, and I am still blindly searching for the key to open it,” O’Neal wrote in “Both of Us.”

O’Neal’s career cooled further in the 1980s with the emerald heist drama “Green Ice” (1981) and the 1984 comedy “Irreconcilable Differences,” in which he played a busy father in an unhappy marriage whose daughter, played by 9-year-old Drew Barrymore, tries to divorce her parents.

The decade was also a low-point in O’Neal’s personal life. His son Griffin faced numerous brushes with the law, including a 1986 boating accident that killed Gian-Carlo Coppola, 23, son of movie director Francis Ford Coppola in Maryland. Griffin O’Neal was convicted of negligently and recklessly operating a boat, received a community service sentence and later served a brief stint in jail as a result.

With his Hollywood status diminishing, Ryan O’Neal began appearing in TV movies and eventually returned to series television opposite then-lover Fawcett with the 1991 sitcom “Good Sports,” but the show ran only one season.

Both acknowledged the work put a strain on their relationship.

“We get into fights,” O’Neal said in 1991. “She’s tough. She expects to be treated well. On a set that can get lost when you’re trying to create a moment and you’re fighting the clock.”

O’Neal began accepting more supporting roles with the 1989 film “Chances Are.” He began a second career as a character actor, playing a husband who hires a hitman to kill his wife in “Faithful” (1996) and a mysterious tycoon in the blackmail comedy “Zero Effect” (1998).

By then his relationship with Fawcett had ended, although they remained close and eventually rekindled their romance in the 2000s. The volatile O’Neal family dynamics that had taxed their relationship before, however, remained.

In 2007 the elder O’Neal was arrested in 2007 for alleged assault and firing a weapon in an altercation with Griffin, but charges were never pursued. Their son Redmond was repeatedly arrested, jailed and spent several years in court-mandated rehab.

A probation check on Redmond O’Neal in September 2008 at his father’s Malibu home led to the actor’s arrest for methamphetamine possession. Ryan O’Neal pleaded guilty to the charge and entered a drug diversion program, but he publicly denied the drugs were his. He said he confiscated them from his son and was trying to protect him.

Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal was born on April 20, 1941 and was the son of screenwriter Charles O’Neal and actor Patricia Callaghan O’Neal. O’Neal spent time as a lifeguard and an amateur boxer before finding his calling as a performer.

The man shot by a St. Paul police officer during an exchange of gunfire died early Friday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced.

Brandon Daleshaun Keys, 24, of Maplewood, was taken to Regions Hospital after the Thursday afternoon shooting.

Officer Michael Tschida was shot in the leg during the incident. He was treated at Regions and released from the hospital Thursday.

St. Paul police responded to a report of a violation of an order for protection, the BCA said of its preliminary investigation. A woman reported she was driving with a man in her passenger seat when Keys pulled behind her and starting hitting her vehicle with his. She also told police that Keys had a gun.

The woman stopped at Cretin and Marshall avenues, and Keys got out of his car and approached the woman’s vehicle, the BCA said.

Tschida arrived, exited his squad and ordered Keys to get on the ground.

“The two exchanged gunfire, during which Keys was struck in the head and Tschida was struck in the leg,” the BCA said in Friday’s statement.

BCA crime scene personnel found a handgun at the scene. The incident was captured on Tschida’s body-worn camera, along with other video cameras, the BCA said.

Tschida, who has 14 years of law enforcement experience, is on standard administrative leave.

The BCA said, when they complete the investigation, they will forward the findings to the Ramsey County attorney’s office for review.

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