Suspect, bystander injured in St. Paul police chase shooting

A suspect in a police chase was critically wounded and the occupant of a nearby home grazed by a bullet in St. Paul early Sunday morning.

Police say they were called to a suspected burglary about 4 a.m. this morning and officers saw a suspicious car leaving the area, near the 1700 block of Dayton Ave.

A St. Paul Police officer followed in a marked squad and saw a passenger get out of the car and flee on foot. A St. Paul sergeant has told investigators that he believed the suspect was carrying a handgun, and the officer fired multiple times.

The suspect was hit at least once and taken to Regions Hospital, where police said he was in critical condition. "We're not going to elaborate on the injuries at this time," said police spokesman Paul Paulos.

An occupant of a nearby home was also injured. Police say a man reported being grazed by a bullet believed to have been fired during the incident. "We don't know whether it came from the suspect or the officer's handgun," Paulos said.

Paulos declined to detail the bystander's injury, but said that he declined medical attention at the scene. Paulos said there was a gun found at the scene that didn't belong to police.

The incident is under investigation, and police are still looking for the car that police were originally following.

Paulos said that the officer pursuing the suspect on foot suffered a knee injury during the chase, but wasn't hit by gunfire. It wasn't clear who fired or how many shots were fired in total, but police say they did find a gun at the scene.

The department said in a statement that the officer that fired his weapon will be put on routine administrative leave.

This story has been updated to include further details from the St. Paul Police Department.

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