1 charged, 2 still in custody for crimes including crash into Ox Cart bar

Authorities have charged one of the three males who are in custody following the string of criminal acts that ended Wednesday with a vehicle crash into Ox Cart Ale House & Rooftop in St. Paul.

According to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, 18-year-old Moeshea Isiah Hart faces one count each of felony drive-by shooting at an occupied vehicle or building, felony vehicle theft, felony possession or operation of a machine gun, felony fleeing police in a vehicle, and gross misdemeanor carrying without a gun permit.

Hart’s court register shows his first court appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday under Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann.

A representative of the attorney’s office did not have any information on charges for the other two in custody. Hart’s charging documents and the Ramsey County Jail Roster name the second 18-year-old man in custody as James Quran Baker. As of this posting, no public court documents have been filed under Baker’s name.

The third person, a 17-year-old boy, has not been identified due to his juvenile status.

A criminal complaint states the events began with a stolen vehicle report filed with the St. Paul Police Department on Dec. 1, 2022. The owner described her vehicle as an orange Jeep Cherokee.

Over two months later, on Feb. 15, St. Paul officers responded to what a caller described as a black Jeep in pursuit of a white Jeep. The caller said someone in the black Jeep was shooting at the white Jeep and they believed the shots to be from an automatic gun.

As previously reported, police eventually found a black Jeep matching the description of the suspect vehicle; they noted the rear window appeared to have been shot out and the front license plate was missing.

Police chased the black Jeep on the interstate until it entered downtown St. Paul. The events ended when the Jeep’s driver struck another vehicle and then veered the Jeep into Ox Cart. No one was hurt in either crash.

Officers arrested Hart, Baker and the 17-year-old from the Jeep and found evidence that included spent shell casings and a Glock 45 9 mm handgun with a loaded, extended magazine and a switch to make it fully automatic.

The complaint states none of the three suspects would speak to investigators.

Upon investigation, the black Jeep ended up being the stolen orange Jeep Cherokee, just with a wrap and a different license plate that wasn’t registered to the vehicle.

Check back for updates as 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS monitors legal proceedings connected to the case. See viewer-submitted video of the crash below.