Man charged with 3 counts of murder in connection to St. Paul shooting after celebration of life

A man is now charged with murder following a shooting this past weekend outside of a celebration of life in St. Paul.

Court records show that 52-year-old John Lee Edmondson, of St. Louis Park, is charged with two counts of unintentional second-degree murder and one count of second-degree intentional murder in connection to the shooting, which killed 37-year-old Troy Kennedy and 34-year-old Larry Jiles Jr., a popular local chef known as “Chef Hot Hands,” and hurt three others.

It happened at around 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 25 in the 500 block of Dale Street North.

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According to court documents, several families had gathered in a community room to celebrate the life of a woman who’d recently died, and Jiles had prepared most of the food for the gathering. When the event ended and it was time for people to leave, an argument started in the parking lot.

One witness told police that, during the argument, Edmondson pulled out a gun and shot Jiles “point blank,” then opened fire and shot six or seven times at everyone in the parking lot. That witness also said Kennedy was Edmondson’s cousin, but Edmondson didn’t seem to care who he was shooting at.

Another witness said Kennedy was angry with someone and Jiles went outside, pulled out a gun because he heard Kennedy had a gun, the complaint states. However, others got Jiles to put his gun away and reminded the men that everyone there was family. The witness said Edmondson then got out of a vehicle, walked up and shot Jiles three times, then started firing at others.

A third witness gave a similar account to police, adding Edmondson had “crazy eyes” and yelled, “Mom, get in the car!” as he fired.

A criminal complaint states that an anonymous person told police that Edmondson was trying to go to Arizona after the shooting to stay with his daughter but she didn’t want him there. The tipster also said that Edmondson told multiple people that he’s not going back to prison and would “shoot it out with police” if he was stopped. He was arrested Thursday.

Court records also note that Edmondson has prior convictions for aggravated robbery and murder, as he was part of a group that targeted and robbed drug dealers and killed one of the dealers.

Edmondson’s first court appearance was scheduled for Friday morning.

Second-degree murder carries up to 40 years in prison with a conviction.