Ramsey County (trfnews.i234.me) – A St. Paul man is charged with first-degree assault after authorities say he shot a woman through a kitchen window while two children were inside the home.
According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to the 1600 block of Suburban Avenue just before noon on Monday for a report of a shooting. They found a 38-year-old woman with a life-threatening gunshot wound to her upper torso. She was taken to Regions Hospital for emergency surgery.
Police say two children, ages 9 and 1, were in the living room during the incident. The 9-year-old told officers she saw her father, Rene Martinez, 39, in the backyard near the kitchen window. She said her mother told her not to let him inside. The two argued before Martinez allegedly broke the window and grabbed a handgun from the kitchen table.
The child said she heard a gunshot moments later and saw her mother had been shot. She told police Martinez never entered the home but reached through the window with the gun. A teenage boy in the house also reported hearing the shot.
Investigators recovered a Smith & Wesson handgun from the kitchen table. Police say Martinez called dispatch during the investigation, suggesting the woman may have shot herself, but later returned to the scene and was arrested.
Court records show an Extreme Risk Protection Order issued in March required Martinez to surrender his firearms, and a Domestic Abuse No Contact Order in July barred him from contacting the victim.
The woman later told police from her hospital bed that Martinez showed up uninvited, prompting her to grab the gun and tell him to leave. She said she put the gun down to tend to her youngest child, and Martinez grabbed it through the window and fired.
Doorbell camera audio from a neighbor allegedly captured part of the argument, the sound of a gunshot, and a child saying, “You shot her.”
Martinez has a prior domestic assault conviction involving the same victim. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.
For more on Minnesota’s assault statutes, visit the Minnesota Legislature.
I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News.
