Double homicide investigation underway in St. Paul. Connection between victims unclear, police say.

Police said Tuesday they’re looking for answers in shootings that killed two people in St. Paul.

Officers were called about 5:45 a.m. to a report of a person shot on the Greater East Side. They found a woman dead inside an apartment on the 1400 block of East Minnehaha Avenue between Birmingham and Barclay streets.

As police were securing the crime scene, they located another gunshot victim behind the building. Paramedics also pronounced the male dead.

No one was under arrest as of Tuesday afternoon. Police said the connection between the victims wasn’t immediately clear and they were working to determine a motive for the shootings.

“We understand that everybody wants answers to what occurred out here this morning,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman. “We want answers also. We want answers for the victims’ families. We want answers … for people that live in this neighborhood and for our city.”

UPDATE: St. Paul shooting was murder-suicide, not double homicide, police say

Investigators could be seen working in and around Minnehaha Apartments, which are comprised of three buildings of three-stories each.

Mayor addresses shooting in ‘State of Our City’ speech

Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the double homicide in his Tuesday “State of Our City” address, saying officers arrived in the morning at the scene where two people “were tragically shot and killed.”

“All of the senseless violence that we’ve seen in St. Paul, not just this year, not just last year, not just since the onset of the pandemic, but for all of our lives,” Carter said. “… We have to understand how deep these challenges go in our community … and we have to understand that if we want to pull St. Paul off of those national trend lines, then that means St. Paul has to take unique action.”

St. Paul police have been working with the city’s new Office of Neighborhood Safety in a “concerted effort to address gun violence in our city,” Ernster said.

The number of people wounded or killed by gunfire is down 31 percent this year, reports of shots-fired have decreased 44 percent and gun recoveries are up 19 percent; all categories are compared to the same period in St. Paul last year, according to the police department.

“We have been very intentional about intervening in gun violence and identifying people who we believe could be involved in gun violence, reaching out to them, and trying to do the hard work of working with them so that we can interrupt the cycle of violence,” Ernster said. “Unfortunately, there are still people that choose to reach for a gun to settle their differences and we’re working hard to stop that.”

Police said they will release the victims’ names after they’re confirmed by the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office. The homicides were the 11th and 12th in St. Paul this year. There were 13 as of this date in the city last year.

Twin Cities Academy, a charter school for grades 6-12 across from the apartments, remained in session Tuesday. The executive director spoke “directly to the lead office on scene and there is no danger to the public and the situation is under control,” according to a Facebook post from the school.