Minneapolis police say the man injured in an officer-involved shooting in St. Paul on Monday evening is the suspect in two recent Minneapolis shootings that killed two people and left two others with life-threatening injuries.

Forty-year-old Earl Bennett has now been charged in one of those Minneapolis shootings, and the officer-involved shooting.

Bennett was charged in Ramsey County on Tuesday with one count of ineligible possession of a firearm and one count of second-degree assault in connection with the officer-involved shooting.

St. Paul officers were called to the intersection of Snelling and University Avenue West around 7:45 p.m. for a report of shots being fired. There, law enforcement found Bennett armed with a handgun, and police then started negotiating with him.

Bennett didn’t put the gun down or surrender and continued walking south until he reached the intersection of University and Snelling avenues.

St. Paul police say that’s when Bennett pointed the gun at his own head and walked in the middle of traffic lanes and on the median between traffic on Snelling Avenue before stopping on the light rail tracks.

That’s where police say they used less lethal projectiles to try to get Bennett to put the gun down, and he pointed his gun at officers, resulting in them firing their weapons and hitting him.

Police say they gave Bennett medical aid for what are considered life-threatening injuries. He was then taken to Regions Hospital and is said to be in critical but stable condition. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension identified him on Tuesday and said he has no permanent address but has been staying in the Twin Cities.

A search of the scene later uncovered a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun that police say Bennett had dropped after he was shot. The gun did not hold a magazine, and it did not have a round of ammunition in the chamber, according to a criminal complaint.

A witness to the shooting told law enforcement they heard Bennett ask the police to shoot him before turning the gun on officers.

The BCA is leading the investigation into the officer-involved shooting. All of the involved officers are being placed on administrative leave, according to the St. Paul Police Department.

Bennett was also charged in Hennepin County on Tuesday.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Tuesday afternoon that Bennett is wanted in the triple shooting at a homeless encampment Sunday that left two men dead and a woman with life-threatening injuries. O’Hara also said Bennett is the suspect in a Minneapolis shooting Monday that left one man with potentially life-threatening injuries.

Bennett was charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder in that Monday shooting.

According to a criminal complaint, the shooting happened inside a sober living facility on the 3500 block of Columbus Avenue South around 5:15 p.m.

Witnesses on the scene told law enforcement that Bennett had returned to the housing facility obviously intoxicated on Monday evening. At that point, staff told Bennett he would have to take a drug test, at which point Bennett became upset.

Bennett then closed the window shades and threatened multiple people before brandishing a gun and shooting the victim in the neck as they were sitting in a chair.

The complaint states that Bennett ran from the scene and was later identified after the officer-involved shooting.

Bennett has eight prior felony convictions, including five convictions for first-degree aggravated robbery, receiving stolen property, fleeing police in a vehicle, and attempted escape.

During Monday night’s shooting, Metro Transit Route 21 was detoured off Snelling Avenue between Shields Avenue and University Avenue and off University Avenue between Snelling Avenue and Simpson Street overnight, according to a post on X from Metro Transit. However, the Minnesota BCA said shortly before 6 a.m. on Tuesday that the intersection of Snelling and University avenues was back open.