Three wounded in shooting outside Hudson liquor store

Two suspects were arrested in Bloomington after allegedly wounding two men and a woman after they all crossed the Wisconsin border.

By Jim Adams, Star Tribune

January 19, 2014 — 9:00pm

Three people were shot in a liquor store parking lot Sunday morning in Hudson, Wis., where police believe the victims and two suspects had gone to buy alcohol on a day when Minnesota liquor stores are closed by law.

The victims and suspects were in cars with Minnesota license plates, said Hudson Police Chief Marty Jensen. He said police have noticed disorderly conduct and shoplifting on Sundays, sometimes by inebriated Minnesotans, but never a shooting.

"It is unbelievable that we have this shooting stuff going on here," he said. "I was just getting ready for church when the call came in." He said the city's last shooting, in August 2007, was not related to alcohol sales.

The suspects were later arrested outside a Bloomington hotel and the shooting victims — two men and a woman — were taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul where the woman underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Witnesses said they saw people talking in the lot, then heard shots fired about 9:20 a.m. outside Spirit Sellers Liquors, which opened at 9 a.m. The shooters fled in a tan or gray Cadillac with tinted windows, Jensen said. He said witnesses saw at least two people in the Cadillac.

Police put out an all-points alert for the car and an Eagan officer spotted it on Interstate 494. He followed it to a hotel near the Mall of America and radioed Bloomington police. They arrested two men within an hour of the Hudson shooting as they walked toward the Hampton Inn near the megamall, Jensen said.

Jensen said he was told that the victims each had been shot once. He said the two wounded men walked into Spirit Sellers Liquors, where rescue workers found them. The woman stayed in the car and all three victims were taken to Regions, where the woman had surgery, Jensen said.

Spirit Seller owner John Kromer said he called 911 and then helped the victims in his store. He said one man was hit near his shoulder, the other in his behind; neither wound appeared critical.

Kromer said his family-run business draws a lot of Minnesota customers on Sundays since "we are just right across the border. We have been here 36 years and we have never had any incidents."

Jensen said the victims' blue SUV carried three other people, who weren't injured, and haven't been very cooperative with police. He said it appeared that the other passengers in the SUV didn't return fire. He said the two suspects are being held by Bloomington police pending extradition to Wisconsin.