The widow of a man robbed and shot outside a St. Paul bar is calling for the business to close.
Oscar Covington died last week, nearly a month after the Oct. 30 shooting, and his wife says justice is needed after a bartender’s alleged involvement in the case and because she said the bar took no action after the 42-year case. .. old was shot. However, the owner says he went to Covington and stayed with him until help arrived.
“My husband, a caring and innocent soul, went to a local bar,” Katrina Covington wrote on the Change.org petition. Little did he know that a tragic fate awaited him: a scheme by one of the bar’s employees led to a despicable robbery. During the harrowing ordeal, he was attacked and shot, sustaining injuries that would ultimately claim his life. The bar owner, who was shockingly indifferent, did not help him or call 911.”
Katrina Covington was not there when her husband was shot, but he called her to tell her he had been injured. She said he also told her the bar door was locked and he couldn’t go back in for help.
Bar owner Michael Born said Monday that an employee — not the bartender charged in the case — locked the door when she heard gunshots outside, likely because she was scared. Born said the employee called him to tell him about the gunshots and he came upstairs from the basement.
“I asked if anyone had called 911 and they said, ‘No, he’s calling right now,'” Born said of what people were saying about Oscar Covington. “I said, ‘Are you guys sure about that?'”
Born said he opened the door to the bar and saw Covington standing in the doorway during a FaceTime call with his wife. Born said he asked him, “Did you call an ambulance?”, but Covington only told him that he had been shot. Born said he could hear sirens approaching and he stayed with Covington until police “came and took over.”
The criminal complaint stated that officers were dispatched on Oct. 30 around 5:45 p.m. and a 911 caller reported seeing Covington being beaten and then shot.
Woman: ‘Apathy and greed’ at work
Covington, of Brooklyn Park, went to Born’s Bar on Rice Street on Oct. 30 around 3:45 p.m. He paid for his drinks in cash, and surveillance footage showed bartender Erica Ruth Hampton, 41, on her phone, according to a criminal complaint. complaint.
After police arrested her on Nov. 21, investigators told Hampton that records showed she “tipped her son” when she called him minutes before Covington left the bar. Hampton said she had nothing to do with the incident. She said she didn’t call or tell anyone about the money Covington had at the bar.
According to Born, the bar terminated Hampton after the incident.
Edward G. Robinson, 43, also faces charges. He and Hampton have a 24-year-old son.
Covington left the bar and Robinson began fighting him, while others joined in, the complaint said. A 39-year-old man shot Covington in the torso.
Covington told police he believed he had about $4,500 in cash because he planned to buy “a small bicycle.”
Covington was taken to the hospital and operated on. He died in hospital on November 26 and police are investigating the case as a homicide.
Katrina Covington wrote in the online petition: “This is not just a story of personal loss, but a disturbing reflection of a society in which the value of life can be undermined by apathy and greed. Furthermore, this incident raises serious concerns about the safety and security of such establishments that could harbor criminal elements.”
Robinson is charged with first-degree riot resulting in death and two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree robbery. Hampton is accused of helping an offender after the fact by being an accomplice.
Hampton and Robinson remain in custody and their attorneys could not be reached for comment Monday.
Two other men are also charged, but their cases remain secret until their arrest.
Previous murders outside the bar
With the Oct. 30 shooting under investigation, the results will “inform any possible permit actions,” said Casey Rodriguez, spokesperson for the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections.
The city council last took adverse action against Born’s Bar’s liquor license in early 2018, fining the business and ordering a three-day closure after a shooting in August 2017 injured several people outside the bar. After the shooting, the manager of Born’s Bar decided he could not immediately make a copy of the surveillance video for police, which is a condition of the bar’s liquor license, an assistant city attorney wrote in a notice of violation at the time.
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In the Covington case, Michael Born called Hampton back to the bar on Oct. 30 “because something was going on with her son and his father,” she told police after her arrest, according to a complaint. She said she ran back to the bar and looked at the cameras with Born. An officer asked Born if he recognized anyone in the video.
“(Hampton) did not respond to the officer’s question because she had nothing to do with it,” the complaint said of her response.
More murders have been committed outside Born over the years. In 2018, 40-year-old Eddie Cortez Smith was fatally shot during an altercation on the sidewalk. In 2017, 28-year-old Carlos Michael Rogers was shot dead outside the bar.
The 2011 fatal shooting of 26-year-old Trevell Glass outside the bar led to changes, including Born’s Bar providing DSI with a security plan.
Oscar Covington’s wife’s petition can be found at chng.it/7V9r9QLvyM.
