Sources ID Officers Involved In Fatal St. Paul Shooting

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Sources have told WCCO-TV the names of the officers involved in Sunday morning's deadly shooting in St. Paul.

St. Paul police officers Vincent Adams and Matthew Jones are both on administrative leave, the sources say. Administrative leave is standard procedure following a fatal police shooting.

On Sunday, the St. Paul Police Department said officers responded to a call that someone was shooting a gun inside a triplex in the Rondo neighborhood around 2:30 a.m.

Officers encountered a man with a gun on the 900 block of St. Anthony Avenue, and the man was shot and killed.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension hasn't yet officially named the officers, but WCCO-TV confirmed Monday that Adams and Jones were on the scene.

Jones' family has a deep and tragic history with the department. His father, Tim Jones, was one of two St. Paul police officers killed in the line of duty in 1994.

The deceased man's name has also yet to be released.

However, WCCO-TV spoke with someone who identified themselves as a close friend of the man who was killed. He said he just spent Friday with the him and called him a good man.

While the crime tape is gone from the weekend scene, questions still linger on St Anthony Avenue.

"I hope that it wasn't any misplay or foul play or anything like that," said Stanley Frelix, a longtime neighborhood resident. "You just hope that when all the facts come out and you look at the end, that this is what had to happen."

Those facts are still largely secret.

The BCA, the agency in charge of the investigation, has not released names or details in the shooting, frustrating the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"Unfortunately, there's been a veil of secrecy around most critical incidents, most shootings, and it's time for Minnesota to start embracing transparency," said Teresa Nelson, the legal director for ACLU-MN.

She says public data should be public quickly.

"We need to err on the side of transparency and get as much information as we can from the police, and if information isn't forthcoming, there needs to be clear timeline about when that's going to happen," she said.

The BCA says it will release more information when investigators finish their first round of interviews.