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Crime, Law and Justice
Tim Nelson and Matt Sepic

Before he was a victim of firearms thieves, mayor’s father lost two handguns

A man in a white hat stands in the back of a press conference.
Melvin Carter Jr., center, stands behind his son Mayor Melvin Carter III, right, and St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell during a press conference on Tuesday.
Evan Frost | MPR News

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St. Paul police records show that at least five handguns belonging to Melvin Carter Jr., the father of Mayor Melvin Carter III, went missing over the last eight years.

MPR News reported previously that the elder Carter, 70, a retired St. Paul policeman, told officers last month that a .380 caliber Glock was stolen from his vehicle as he was exercising at the YWCA on Selby Avenue. That incident followed an August 2017 burglary at the home of the younger Carter in which a thief pried open a locked box and stole two handguns that the elder Carter had given his son.

But prior to the Carter family being victimized, Melvin Carter Jr. reported that he lost two other weapons since retiring from the police force in 2003.

Newly released police reports show that the elder Carter contacted officers on June 13, 2017, and said he could not find his black Glock Model 42 .380 caliber handgun, which was loaded.

According to the police file from that incident, Carter said he did some things around the house before driving to downtown St. Paul, where he spent about 90 minutes. He said when he drives, he normally leaves the weapon in the center console. He told police that he couldn’t remember if he locked his vehicle. Officer Alexander Graham helped Carter check the vehicle, but eventually had the gun listed in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.

The mayor’s father reported a similar occurrence on July 15, 2011. According to the police report in that case, Carter told officers that around 4 p.m. that day, he set his Taurus 85 .38 special revolver on the rear bumper of his vehicle and drove down an alley near Charles Avenue.

The report says the elder Carter “drove around the neighborhood for several minutes before he realized he had left the revolver on the bumper.” Carter looked for the gun with the help of officers Richard McGuire and Carlos Wong, “with negative results.”

Police say none of the five lost or stolen firearms was ever recovered. In the most recent incident, Ramsey County prosecutors charged Hamze Mohamed Daod, 18, of St. Paul, with two counts of felony theft for allegedly breaking into the elder Carter’s vehicle and stealing the handgun and credit cards. Last year, Larobin Shawntel Scott, 25, received a four-year sentence after pleading guilty to the burglary at the younger Carter’s home while he was running for mayor.

The reports of missing firearms come at a time when Mayor Melvin Carter and other community leaders vowed a forceful response to recent gun violence in the city. Over a nine-hour span on Monday and Tuesday, there were three separate fatal shootings in St. Paul. Prosecutors have charged two 15-year-old boys in one of the killings. In another, Lionel Keejuan Eaton, 27, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Javier Sanmiguel, 31, who rushed out of his home to help when he heard a multi-vehicle crash late Monday.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Carter and Police Chief Todd Axtell decried the violence. Standing alongside them were more than a dozen community leaders, including the mayor’s father.

“It seems so easy for the wrong people to get their hands on a gun,” Mayor Carter said.

Peter Leggett, Mayor Carter’s communications director, said on Friday that the mayor would not comment on his father’s lost or stolen guns.

Attempts to get a comment from the elder Carter about the two lost guns on Friday were unsuccessful. He told MPR News on Thursday that his missing firearms caused him distress and promised to keep better track of his weapons.

“I was agonizing about it,” Carter said. “I’m already doing a better job.”