Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar has ruled that St. Paul police were justified when they fatally shot a murder suspect during his arrest last year.
Hocevar said in a news release Saturday that officers acted reasonably to protect themselves when they shot Seantrell Tyreese Murdock in September outside a home where he was staying in Belle Plaine.
“While the premature loss of life is always a tragedy, in this situation the officers acted both reasonably and responsibly,” Hocevar said.
He said the officers had tried “to peaceably arrest Mr. Murdock for an assassination-style murder of an unarmed civilian in St. Paul on the previous day.” But Murdock’s actions “far exceeded ‘resisting arrest’ and rose to the level of presenting a clear and present danger to the arresting officers,” Hocevar said.
Authorities identified Murdock in surveillance footage as the man who shot 66-year-old artist Carrie Kwok on Sept. 25 in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.
Kwok was painting a mural in her building’s parking lot when, according to police, Murdock approached her and shot her from behind.
Kwok, who had two children and four grandchildren, had only recently moved into the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative. Her death rattled neighbors, who gathered days after the murder to mourn her and support each other.
Police Chief Axel Henry called the murder, which police said appeared to have been random, “one of the most cold-blooded things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
