Teen dies a week after shooting in St. Paul, other teen charged

A teenager is dead after being injured during a shooting earlier this month in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood.

Law enforcement was called to Western Avenue North and Topping Street at around 1 a.m. on Feb. 10 for a report of a person who was shot, according to St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.

Henry said officers on the scene found 16-year-old Kalven Sin Suy, of Savage, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was brought to Regions Hospital but died on Sunday as a result of his injuries.

RELATED: Teenager seriously injured in St. Paul shooting

A 17-year-old was arrested on Feb. 16 in connection with the shooting. He was brought to Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated robbery and assault.

On Wednesday, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office filed a petition to charge the suspect with murder and aggravated robbery. Prosecutors are also expected to try to have the teen certified as an adult.

According to the petition, Sin Suy’s girlfriend told police they’d been at her home until Sin Suy asked her to drive him to the North End to meet up with someone he knew. She dropped him off and parked nearby. A few minutes after dropping him off, Sin Suy called her, saying, “Come get me, he shot me.”

She later added that the 17-year-old suspect and Sin Suy were previously in a juvenile detention center together and the 17-year-old was thought of as a bodyguard.

When pressed about the late time of the meeting, the girl said that Sin Suy sometimes sold marijuana, the petition states. While she maintained she wasn’t sure if he had marijuana with him that night, she said he did have a bag when she dropped him off and no longer had it after he’d been shot.

Investigators found that the suspect had texted Sin Suy a selfie video last month and the person in the video matched the description of the person Sin Suy’s girlfriend said he was meeting. The petition notes that earlier texts between the two referenced guns and drugs, including a clear negotiation of a drug and gun sale in the hours leading up to the shooting.

It also notes that the 17-year-old’s phone data placed him in the area of the shooting at the time it happened, and several fake $100 bills as well as a “ghost gun” were found in his home when he was arrested. At a different address, officers found the teen’s school ID and another gun that had its serial number removed.

The 17-year-old has multiple prior aggravated robbery convictions, including one in Anoka County last fall for which he’d been certified as an adult, and a dangerous weapons discharge offense in Hennepin County in 2022.

This marks the third homicide of the year in St. Paul.