19-year-old charged in shooting outside St. Paul school

A 19-year-old is facing charges in connection to four separate shootings in St. Paul earlier this year, including one outside a school that hurt a staff member.

Court documents show that Eh Doh Soe was arrested last week and admitted to his involvement in the four shootings.

The first happened on Jan. 20 outside Washington Technology Magnet School.

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St. Paul police say two groups of teenage students were fighting outside the school at around 3:30 p.m. and staff members intervened. However, as one group drove away, a student yelled, “they’re coming back around” and “they’ve got a gun,” charging documents state. A Honda sedan then pulled up, the driver’s window rolled down and at least two gunshots were fired.

The shooting grazed a staff member’s ear lobe and she was treated for minor injuries, police said. No other injuries were reported.

Police later recovered two spent shell casings and a spent bullet outside the school. A month later, they arrested Soe for having a gun that test results later tied to the four shootings, but Soe denied any involvement. He was more forthcoming after his arrest last week, charging documents state.

According to the documents, Soe admitted that he and five others went to an apartment complex on Duluth Street where they believed rival gang members lived and intended to break into cars on Jan. 28. However, when someone confronted them, Soe said someone else in his group had the gun and shot the victim.

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On Feb. 8, he admitted to going to a recreation center in the city to kill someone he and his friends were having trouble with. That was one of several shootings outside St. Paul rec centers in about a month.

Finally, the documents state that Soe admitted to shooting a person on Feb. 12 after that person gave Soe and others in the car “a mean look.”

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Charging documents state that cellphone data also put Soe at the scene of all four shootings.

He’s now charged with:

• Two counts of dangerous weapons for drive-by shooting and one count of second-degree assault for the Jan. 20 shooting.
• Two counts of aiding and abetting second-degree assault and one count of aiding dangerous weapons for drive-by shooting for the Jan. 28 shooting.
• One count of dangerous weapons for drive-by shooting and second-degree assault for the Feb. 8 shooting.
• One count of dangerous weapons for drive-by shooting and second-degree assault for the Feb. 12 shooting.

Each dangerous weapons for drive-by shooting charge carries up to 10 years in prison while second-degree assault is punishable by up to seven years.

Soe made his first court appearance on the charges earlier this week and has another hearing set for Aug. 22.