Man shot dead in St. Paul

​The city of St. Paul, in the mist of an astonishingly quiet year in violent deaths, was the site of a shooting homicide last night, bringing its annual total to just five.

Around 6:30 last night, police were called to East 3rd Street and Bates Avenue, but by that time the victim's friends had already taken him to Regions Hospital. The 24-year-old man was declared dead at the hospital shortly after he arrived, according to KSTP.

Police are investigating, but no suspects are in custody.

While Minneapolis has suffered through a violent summer and early fall, with a spate of youth violence, St. Paul had been virtually silent for nearly four months.

Already last night, friends and family were lighting candles and laying flowers where the man was killed, KSTP reports.

According to the Pioneer Press's homicide data, the fatal shooting is the first deliberate homicide in that city since rapper Quincy Blue's burned remains were found in a downtown alley on June 7.