ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three adults were found dead Monday afternoon inside the leasing office of an apartment complex in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood, and a 30-year-old suspect was arrested hours later nearly 200 miles north.
Saint Paul police officers were called to the 1500 block of St. Paul Avenue at 4:10 p.m. Monday for multiple reports of shots fired. Officers arrived and found three adults dead in the leasing office of the Davern Park Apartments, located between Davern and West Seventh streets. Officers evacuated residents from the complex and secured the scene while the department’s homicide, forensic services and video management units processed evidence.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims as Nansi G. Fuentes Zambrano, 25, of Inver Grove Heights, Dena M. Silcox, 56, of Saint Paul, and Adam J. Wilwerding, 43, of Oakdale. Neighbors at the Davern Park Apartments said the three victims worked as employees at the leasing office.
St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry addressed reporters Monday night. “This is an unbelievably big tragedy for our city,” Henry said, “and it will not be accepted.” Henry said investigators had already executed one search warrant in connection with the shooting by the time of the news conference.
A person of interest was taken into custody around 9:45 p.m. Monday. St. Paul police said Tuesday that the man taken into custody, a 30-year-old, was arrested Monday evening in Virginia, Minnesota, nearly 200 miles north of St. Paul, and transported back to St. Paul police headquarters. The suspect was identified as Tsegaab A. Binessu, 30, of Saint Paul, and was booked into jail Tuesday on suspicion of murder. Police had surrounded another apartment building on the 1300 block of St. Paul Avenue, the same block where court records show Binessu lives, before his arrest in northern Minnesota. Officers armed with long guns had used a loudspeaker to demand someone exit an apartment there and fired less-lethal munitions through a second-story window, though the chief said police did not find the suspect at that location. A motive has not been released.
Police said the killings mark the ninth, 10th and 11th homicides in St. Paul in 2026. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct autopsies to confirm the victims’ exact causes of death, with updates expected on the St. Paul Police Department’s Facebook and X accounts.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the St. Paul Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 651-266-5650.
