Woman in SUV is shot and critically injured in St. Paul

A young woman was shot and critically wounded Wednesday while sitting in an SUV on St. Paul's East Side, police said.

Police later picked up and were questioning a suspect who knows her about the shooting, which happened at 5 p.m. near the busy intersection of White Bear Avenue and E. 7th Street.

The victim was taken to Regions Hospital, police spokesman Howie Padilla said. Her name wasn't released, but she is believed to be from St. Paul.

No information was available on her condition late Wednesday.

"These are individuals who knew each other and got into a verbal altercation which obviously took a dramatic turn for the worse," Padilla said.

Police scanner traffic said the victim was a 24-year-old who had dated the 19-year-old male suspect, whose name police received within minutes of the shooting. The police transmissions said she'd been shot in the head and was unresponsive but breathing when police got to the scene, a dark-blue SUV with the victim sitting inside.

Police would not say if anyone else was in the SUV and had witnessed the shooting.

He was arrested at Regions Hospital and was being questioned at police headquarters late Wednesday, watch commander Eric Anderson said.

According to the scanner transmissions, the man was the boyfriend of the woman, whose worried parents had called police to report a fight between the two, and then called back soon after to say she'd been shot.

JOY POWELL, NICOLE NORFLEET