Charges: St. Paul Woman Pistol-Whipped Neighbor After Argument

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 46-year-old St. Paul woman faces assault charges after she allegedly poked her neighbor's belly with a knife and pistol-whipped him following an argument over noisy kids, court documents filed Friday say.

A convoluted criminal complaint says Debbie Tucker got into an argument with her upstairs neighbor on Wednesday night. The neighbor's young children were running around, causing noise to come from Tucker's ceiling; thus Tucker walked upstairs to talk with her neighbor.

The complaint doesn't say what the two spoke about, but it does say Tucker called her neighbor a derogatory expletive. In response, the neighbor slammed the door in Tucker's face.

The scene escalated when the neighbor's husband, referred to in the complaint as J.A.F.-C., came home. The neighbor told J.A.F.-C. (hereon referred to as J.) of the argument with Tucker.

J. then jumped on the kitchen floor, making sure Tucker heard a big noise in her apartment below. J. then ran downstairs and waited for Tucker to come to the door.

However, Tucker's daughter (hereon referred to as M.) answered. The two exchanged words, but Tucker soon appeared with a knife. She poked J. in the stomach, but the blade didn't break his skin.

The complaint says that at this point Tucker went back into her apartment and came back with a gun. She pointed it at J., and J. reportedly told her to shoot if she was going to shoot.

J. made a call to his brother, asking him to come over and "bring whatever he has."

After the call, M. (Tucker's daughter) pushed J., and J. pushed her back. It was at this moment that Tucker pistol whipped J., simultaneously causing the gun to fire.

Tucker retreated back into her apartment with the gun.

J. wife's, the neighbor whom Tucker originally argued with, saw M. push J. She ran upstairs with her child when she saw the gun to call 911.

Tucker and M. have a different version of the incident, the complaint says.

According to M., J. pushed her first, and Tucker only came out of the apartment with a knife. She says that a man appeared out of nowhere and fired the gun. She described this man as having dark, braided hair and wearing a dark hoodie. However, she said she didn't get a look at the man, because he had his hands in her face.

After the shooting, M. says she went to have a cigarette. The complaint says she could not explain why she didn't call police.

Tucker told police a similar story. She said J. pushed her daughter and that a man then appeared with a gun. Tucker said the man was slim, either 18 or 20, wore jeans and short hair. She said she wrestled this man for his gun, at which point it went off.

Tucker said J. told the man that he'd been hit and that he should leave. The man left with the gun, Tucker said.

A witness saw part of the conflict. She said she saw the gun was when Tucker brought it out. She said she didn't see another man involved in the conflict.

When police investigated the scene, which happened on the 1000 block of Reaney Avenue East, they found a 9mm bullet lodged in the staircase. They did not find a gun in Tucker's apartment.

Tucker faces two counts of second-degree assault. If convicted, she might be fined up to $28,000 and/or face a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

She is the Ramsey County Jail. Her bail has been set at $50,000.