ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two people have been charged in connection with the shooting death of a man outside a St. Paul bar in October.
Charging documents accuse the bartender at Born’s Bar on Rice Street of allowing the man — identified as 42-year-old Oscar Lee Covington — to be robbed. Covington, who died Nearly a month after he was shot, he told police he had about $4,500 in cash on him at the time.
According to documents, Covington arrived at the bar on October 30 around 3:45 p.m. He ordered something from the bartender, who he said “poured” his drinks.
According to documents, the bartender called her son’s father around 4 p.m. The father then spoke to three people on the phone, including his son.
Surveillance video from the bar shows Covington on the back patio, drinking, smoking and using his virtual reality glasses. The bartender’s son and a man wearing a pink sweatshirt arrived at the bar around 4:25 p.m., but left shortly afterwards, bringing the bartender’s car closer to the bar.
The father and another man were “posted” on the sidewalk outside the bar, the documents say, keeping watch through the windows.
Covington left the bar at 5:42 p.m., the documents say. The father began walking with him and when they reached Covington’s car, he began physically assaulting him, the complaint said. Two people pulled out guns during the fight and the son picked up money that had fallen on the ground.
One of the men then shot Covington in the torso, and everyone involved in the robbery scattered, documents say. Shortly afterwards, first responders arrived and Covington was taken to the hospital. Police recovered several items from the scene, including a Glock pistol magazine, two .40-caliber live rounds of ammunition, a spent .40-caliber casing, an iPhone and a flip phone. Later, police found a wallet at the hospital containing the father’s driver’s license.
The bartender was arrested on November 21. She told police that Covington and her son’s father had gotten into an argument at one point because Covington had called the father a traitor. She denied being involved in the incident.
She is accused of aiding an offender and will make her first court appearance on Friday. Her son’s father was charged with first-degree rioting and two counts of aggravated robbery.
Covington went into cardiac arrest two days after the shooting and died on November 26.
