A stray bullet struck a St. Paul fire station, causing minor damage to a fire engine and ambulance inside, according to police and fire departments.
Firefighters were inside the building, but no one was in the vehicles, and there were no injuries.
Shooting victims sometimes go to fire stations for help, but St. Paul firefighter union president Mike Smith said he doesn’t recall another time that a fire station was struck by gunfire in his 26 years on the job.
“It’s our job to know our surroundings and the neighborhoods we work in, so we are concerned,” Smith said.
Multiple people reported shots fired on the Greater East Side about 7:15 p.m. Monday. Officers responded to an apartment complex at 1619 E. Maryland Ave. and found spent casings and a bullet fragment in the parking lot, according to a police report.
A bullet struck Fire Station 9, across the street from the parking lot, and a spent bullet fragment was found in the garage.
Earlier Monday, in an unrelated incident, shots were fired outside another St. Paul fire station.
Officers found eight 9mm casings in front of Fire Station 7 in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, according to another police report. It happened about 1:35 a.m. Monday on Ross Avenue near East Seventh Street.
A firefighter saw a male lying on the ground, and two people put him in a vehicle and sped off, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman. The firefighter thought the person had dropped to the ground reflexively when the shots were fired, though officers found what appeared to be blood in the area.
Officers did not locate a shooting victim and police weren’t notified of someone going to a hospital with a gunshot injury from the incident, Ernster said.
No one was under arrest in either case as of Tuesday.
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