Maplewood park wedding guest shot man arguing with groom, charges say

A guest at a wedding in a Maplewood park pulled out a gun and shot a man who was arguing with the groom, according to charges filed Friday.

Police were sent to Keller Lake Regional Park about 5:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and found a 36-year-old St. Paul man on the ground in the parking lot with gunshot wounds. Good Samaritans had removed their belts and wrapped them on the man’s legs to stop the bleeding. He was taken to Regions Hospital and survived.

The man’s 7-year-old daughter told officers that her dad was talking to the groom, and that it looked like they might be getting into an argument. A third man with long dreadlocks approached, and she thought he was going to split the two men up.

Instead, the girl told police, the third man pulled out a handgun and shot her father, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

Witnesses told police that the third man, who was later identified as Stephan Andrew James, of South St. Paul, then ran across the parking lot and got into a Dodge SUV. He left after a woman and three children got inside the SUV.

An investigator spoke to the wedding photographer, who said he saw the St. Paul man and groom hug and walk a short distance. He heard shouting, saw James shove the man, then heard “two bangs,” the complaint says.

A police canine located a 9 mm Hornady casing in grass off the walking path near the park’s pavilion.

The groom told an investigator they were about to cut the wedding cake when the St. Paul man, who was not invited to the wedding, approached him. The groom said the man was “aggressive and mad at him” because the groom had not attended a funeral. “The groom claimed he did not see the shooting – he only heard it,” the complaint says.

At the hospital, the St. Paul man told an investigator that he went to the wedding to pick up his girlfriend and kids. He said he took the opportunity to talk with the groom about missing a funeral and not having his kids in the wedding. He claimed the groom shoved him and denied that he verbally or physically responded, according to the complaint.

He said the shooter pulled out a gun and told him, “We aren’t playing that (expletive)” before firing. He identified James as the shooter through photos provided to police.

Police conducted surveillance on James and arrested him Wednesday after pulling over a vehicle in St. Paul.

“Officers noted James had cut off his dreadlocks,” the complaint says.