1 Dead, 1 Injured In St. Paul Officer-Involved Shooting

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating an officer-involved shooting in St. Paul Monday morning that left one man dead and a woman injured.

The shooting happened at about 3:30 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Acker and Buffalo Streets in St. Paul's Mt. Airy neighborhood.

Police say they got a call about a man with a gun. When officers got to the scene, they were told the man was with a woman on Acker Street in St. Paul.

What happened next is under investigation, but witnesses say they heard about 50 shots and a shootout between officers and a man who died at the scene.

"There were about 25 shots before the cops even got here," neighbor Carla Senters said.

She says she watched from her kitchen window as police closed in on a man with a gun, who was later identified as Jaffort Demont Smith.

"The police came like two minutes after that, not even. The police came, you heard them get out of their car and they were telling everyone, 'Freeze! Don't move!'" Senters said.

According to the St. Paul Police Department, officers were called to the 100 block of Acker. Someone saw a man with a gun. When they got there, officers were told that man had a woman with him. Police ran across the pair near Buffalo and Acker Streets.

"During this encounter, shots were fired by St. Paul Police officers. St. Paul fire and paramedics responded, transferred the female to Regions Hospital for treatment of her injuries. The man was pronounced dead at the scene," said Mike Ernster, of St. Paul Police.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released the names of the officers involved on Tuesday: John Corcoran, Mark Grundhauser, Jeffrey Korus and Michael Tschida.

All four officers have been placed on paid leave, which is standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting. Corcoran is an 18-year veteran of the department; Grundhauser is a 4-year vet; Korus is a 5-year vet; and Tschida has been with SPPD for 6 years.

Senters says what the scanner did not pick up is the last words spoken by the man police say had a gun.

"He came running back here and the police chased him and they were like, 'Freeze! Put your hands up!' And he said, 'You're gonna have to kill me,' and then you heard 'Boof-Boof-Boof' -- three shots and he was down," Senters said.

The woman, 49-year-old Beverly Joan Flowers of St. Paul, is expected to survive.