Three people shot, one run over outside front gate as Minnesota State Fair ends

Three people were shot outside the main gate of the Minnesota State Fair late Monday and another was hit by a car, authorities said.

The chaotic scene erupted around 10:20 p.m. outside the gate at Snelling Avenue and Midway Parkway as the fair was closing for the year.

An altercation broke out and afterward a girl was run over. She is in critical condition at Regions Hospital, St. Paul Police spokesman Steve Linders said early Tuesday morning.

After the pedestrian accident outside the fairgrounds, the driver of the car initially stopped, but after people started kicking and punching his car, he drove to another spot, called police and is cooperating with the investigation, he said.

As police were investigating the car accident, they heard several gunshots on Midway. Officers ran toward the scene and found a man with a gunshot wound.

Two other men later showed up at Regions and United hospitals with gunshot wounds.

Two of the wounded are 20 years old and one was 18. One was shot in the stomach and pelvic area, one in the hand and one in the shoulder, he said. This year, 105 people have been shot in St. Paul.

"Everybody was put at risk. Several shots were fired," Linders said of fairgoers and others gathered in the area. "We're lucky more people weren't injured or killed."

All three men are expected to survive, he said, while adding that it was too soon to say with any degree of certainty whether the shooting was related to an earlier fight that preceded the pedestrian crash.

Shell casings were on the scene. No arrests have been made, Linders said.

Witnesses of the shooting outside the fairgrounds reported via Twitter hearing clusters of shots fired, and then seeing panic as fairgoers scrambled to safety.

It's unclear whether that fight is the same as one captured on video now circulating on Facebook, which shows at least six teenagers stomping on the stomach of a young woman curled up on the ground. Teens scattered as an officer approached.

The 12-second video has no time stamp, but appears to be taken just outside the fair's turnstiles and was posted late Monday.

Linders said police are asking people to share any information or videos on the incidents.

After the incidents, Regions Hospital was temporarily placed on lockdown early Tuesday morning as confrontations broke out between family members of at least one of the victims.