A suspect who admitted to bullet shooting a Washington Technology Magnet School staff member earlier this year was charged with six felonies in connection with that shooting on Monday and one more shooting a week later.
Eh Doh Soe, 19, who was charged in connection with the January drive-by shooting outside Washington Technology Magnet School on Rice Street in St. Paul and with another drive-by shooting less than a week later, allegedly told authorities he was involved in a series of shootings following the one at the school.
On January 20, a school employee was shot and injured after a fight broke out between two groups of teenagers at the school, police said. The staff member suffered a minor abrasion to her earlobe and was treated by medics on the spot.
According to the complaint, after his arrest on Friday, Soe admitted to being involved in at least three other shootings following the shooting at the school, which serves grades 6-12 with a preparatory curriculum focused on math and science.
According to the complaint, after reading his Miranda rights, Soe admitted to buying a Springfield XD 40 pistol for $500 around noon on Jan. 20 “from a man near Phalen Lake,” in St. Paul, whom he had met on Snapchat.
He told detectives that he joined a Karen gang in high school and that his gang had feuds with other gangs because the other gangs made fun of them for wearing traditional Karen clothes and being from abroad. He claimed his gang was formed because Asian children were being robbed and beaten. He said the gang is now disbanded.
On January 20, he drove to the school in Washington to pick up his sister. He had five other people in his Honda Accord at the time.
According to the complaint, shortly after the school closed around 3 p.m., a fight broke out between several Karen students and about four black students. School officials broke up the fight and escorted two Karen students and two Karen adults away from the school. As they did, someone in the group said, “This isn’t over yet” and “We’ll be back.”
Meanwhile, other school officials escorted the black students to the student parking lot.
A school official heard one of the students yell, “They’re coming back” and “They’ve got a gun,” then saw a dark blue four-door sedan pull up halfway into the student parking lot. The driver’s window was rolled down and the driver aimed a black pistol out the window and fired twice.
A member of staff escorting two of the students back to the school heard “several loud pops and felt something whizzing” past her head before feeling pain in her right ear. Later, police said they saw a bullet hole in the sweatshirt and jacket she was wearing and saw that her right earlobe was bleeding.
During interrogation, Soe admitted to “shooting an African-American boy yelling at him more than three times” and “expressed remorse for hitting the school staff member with a bullet.”
The two complaints give the following details of what Soe told authorities:
Around midnight a little over a week later, on January 28, Soe said he drove his Honda with five other people inside to an apartment complex at 10000 Duluth Street, where they believed a rival gang member lived. He said they planned to break into cars and “cause havoc in the parking lot”.
When someone came out to confront them, Soe claimed he gave his Springfield pistol to a friend who fired it and shot someone.
The victim in that shooting was shot twice in the foot after he confronted the group about smashing car windows in the parking lot, the indictment in that case said. Another man who also confronted the group hid behind a pillar when the shooting began. He was not injured, but according to the indictment a bullet went through his pants.
A few weeks later, on February 8, Soe drove his Honda to a leisure center to confront someone they were having “problems” with. He said they were going to kill the other person. But when he and his friends arrived at the recreation center, other friends first confronted the intended victim and shot him with Soe’s Springfield pistol, he claimed.
During a fourth shooting, on February 12, Soe said that this time he was a passenger in a red Honda Civic when they drove past someone they said was “looking at them mean.” A passenger in the back seat, Soe claimed, shot the person with Soe’s Springfield pistol and then returned it to him.
On February 23, St. Paul officers stopped the red Honda Civic, believing it to be involved in the February 12 shooting. When they did, they arrested Soe, who was in the front seat, on suspicion of possession of the Springfield without a license. He had the gun in his front pocket. It was loaded with an extended magazine on it at the time.
Authorities say cell phone records place Soe’s phone at the scene of all four shootings.
Soe, who is in custody in Ramsey County, is expected to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday.
