Man, 37, charged with fatally shooting 18-year-old SUV driver in St. Paul

A 37-year-old man with a violent history was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder on suspicion that he opened fire from a car and killed the 18-year-old driver of an SUV over the weekend in St. Paul.

Dennis J. Edmondson of St. Paul was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder and illegal weapons possession in connection with the shooting of Lavonte D. Baymon-Love, of St. Paul, about 8:45 p.m. Sunday near E. 7th Street and Mounds Boulevard.

Edmondson was arrested at his home Monday, appeared in court Wednesday morning and remains jailed in lieu of $750,000 bail. The public defender's office has yet to assign an attorney to Edmondson's case.

According to the criminal complaint:

A witness said he saw Baymon-Love's SUV come to a stop at 7th and Mounds Boulevard next to the car occupied by Edmondson. Gunshots were followed by the SUV crashing.

Five juveniles got out of the SUV and were screaming. A woman driving the car with Edmondson as a passenger drove away on westbound Interstate 94.

A witness pulled Baymon-Love from the SUV and began resuscitation efforts. Fire Department medics arrived and took Baymon-Love to Regions Hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to the neck.

Moments later, she said, Edmondson saw the SUV and yelled to its occupants, "What … are you looking at?" she quoted him as saying.

She said Edmondson shot first, and gunfire followed from the SUV. She said Edmondson fired first because he feared people in the SUV were going to shoot him.

Officers recovered .40-caliber casings from the scene of the gunfire and .22-caliber casings from inside the SUV, evidence of an exchange of gunfire.

Edmondson's criminal history in Minnesota includes two convictions for terroristic threats and two for criminal sexual conduct.

At the time of his apprehension, he was under state Department of Corrections supervision in connection with a criminal sexual conduct conviction in 2011.