One man apparently bumped another on a Metro Transit bus, leading to an argument that continued off the bus and ended with one of them dead in a stabbing on a St. Paul street, police said.
Desmond Deshawn Harper, 25, of St. Paul died early Wednesday, July 11, and police arrested a 38-year-old man.
Officers were called to the area of Rice Street and Aurora Avenue, about a block from University Avenue, just after 1 a.m. on a report of two people fighting. They found an unresponsive man, later identified as Harper, and two other men. Harper died at the scene, said Howie Padilla, St. Paul police spokesman.
Harper’s death “may have been the culmination of a brief verbal altercation that apparently began on Metro Transit bus Route 16,” Padilla said in a statement. Preliminary information is that one man bumped the other, Padilla said, adding that he didn’t know which role each played. One was stabbed when the men got off the bus at Rice and Aurora, Padilla said.
A Metro Transit spokesman also said the argument didn’t turn violent until the men got off the bus.
Police arrested Tim Davin Dortch of St. Paul on suspicion of murder. A case has not been presented to the Ramsey County attorney’s office for consideration of charges.
The other man at the scene was a witness, who was questioned and released by police, Padilla said.
Harper’s death was the eighth homicide of the year in St. Paul, matching the number of homicides in the city during all of 2011.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried or twitter.com/ppUsualSuspects.
