22-year-old identified as St. Paul homicide victim

Late Thursday morning, the St. Paul Police Department released the name of a man killed in the city’s North End neighborhood earlier this week.

According to police, 22-year-old Alex Becker of St. Paul was killed on the 500 block of Lawson Avenue West.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Becker’s death marked the city’s 40th homicide investigation of the year.

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Police were called to the area just before midnight for a report of shots fired and found Becker, who had been shot.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 651-266-5650. Police had previously said they were looking for nearby video surveillance, possible witnesses and suspects.

“He was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother,” Josiah Wren, who said Becker was his best friend, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

“When I first heard about it, I just shut down – I couldn’t process anything, [it] just hurt,” Wren said about learning he lost Becker.

Now he, and those close to Becker, hope investigators can find whose responsible for the killing.

“I just want to know why they did this,” Wren said of the suspect, or suspects. “I don’t care about who – I just want to know why.”

A GoFundMe has been started to help support Becker’s family.

His family also released the following statement on Thursday:

“Alex was a beautiful, gentle, smart, kind, hardworking, generous person. He loved Pokémon, D&D, Naruto, cartography, and Warcraft 3. He spent everyday taking care of everyone and thinking of others. He was a hard worker and when he wasn’t working he was spending time with his family.”