St. Paul club where father of 5 was killed has history of violence

Keith D. Turnipseed Jr. had five children and worked four jobs to support them, his family said. To them, he was K-Dog.

"They done took all of me away," his mother, Denise Archer, said Monday after her 33-year-old son was fatally shot early Sunday outside an after-hours club in St. Paul's Summit-University neighborhood.

"They ripped my whole heart and guts out," she said. "They're not going to tell me my only son's name was 'victim.'"

Police spokesman Peter Panos said a 21-year-old St. Paul man was arrested Monday in connection with the shooting. Panos said police don't know the motive, but said that Turnipseed was not the intended victim.

"The shooting might not have been random, but the victim was random, absolutely," Panos said.

Three other people were wounded in the shooting outside the Pioneer Club at the corner of Milton Street and Concordia Avenue. Their injuries are not life-threatening and their names are not being released because they fear for their safety, Panos said. Witnesses have not been very cooperative, he said.

The Pioneer Club, also known as Club Milton, is a private club and has an on-sale liquor license that allows it to sell alcohol to members and their guests until 2 a.m., said Christine Rozek, deputy director of the city's Department of Safety and Inspections. Patrons must finish their drinks and leave by 2:30 a.m., she said.

Rozek said that the club is in a nondescript building in a largely residential neighborhood and that neighbors have complained about it twice this year. The first complaint, on Feb. 26, was about overcrowding in the 1,400-square-foot establishment and about garbage littering the yard and alley. Another from June 9 was about cars and people lining up to get in the club until about 4 a.m.

The club also has been the scene of other violence. In 2005, a Brooklyn Park man was shot and killed outside the establishment. The following year, a 47-year-old St. Paul man was found dead in a burning car in the parking lot.

Panos said it's not clear whether the shooter and the victims in Sunday's incident had been in the club. Police and paramedics were called to the building about 2:40 a.m. Sunday and found a large group of people on the street and two gunshot victims -- one of whom was Turnipseed -- lying on the ground. Officers later learned that two other shooting victims had been taken to hospitals by car.

City Council Member Melvin Carter, whose ward includes the Pioneer Club, said he has heard from constituents about problems at that bar and others in the neighborhood both before and after the weekend incident.

They have expressed "frustration, rage and even fear right now in the wake of what happened," Carter said.

"I miss him," she said.