A three-day snow shoveling dispute between Saint Paul neighbors ended with a bullet fired through a kitchen window and into a car where two women were sitting.
Douglas Scott Kane, 55, of Saint Paul, faces charges of second-degree assault and reckless discharge of a firearm in Ramsey County.
According to the criminal complaint, Kane and his neighbors on the 300 block of Hope Street had been feuding over snow in the shared driveway between their homes. On Sunday, March 15, Saint Paul police responded to a disorderly conduct call. A woman told officers she was shoveling her driveway when Kane yelled at her for putting snow onto his side and threatened to hit her.
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Kane told police the woman's family had threatened to have their "baby daddy" come shoot him. Both sides agreed to stay separated.
The next day, police responded to two 911 calls. Kane had gone outside with a snow blower and aimed it directly at one of the women as she shoveled. The neighbors tried to stop him and a physical fight broke out, the complaint states. One woman swung an orange-bladed shovel overhead and struck Kane on the left side of his head. Another hit him in the left side of his neck with a second shovel, knocking him onto his back. While he was down, one of the women sprayed him with bear mace.
Kane stood up, drew a Springfield XD9 handgun and held it in a "low ready" position, telling the women to get back, according to court documents. They retreated inside. When Kane went back outside, one of the neighbors told him, "I got something for you, white boy," and sprayed him with bear mace again, the complaint states.
On Wednesday, March 18, around 2:45 p.m., two of the women were sitting in a car in their driveway listening to music when a bullet came through the passenger window, sending glass flying. They crawled out of the car and ran inside to call 911.
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Kane called 911 himself from his home and told dispatchers his firearm had "accidentally" gone off and the round went through his kitchen window. When officers arrived, they found a bullet hole in the car's passenger window and a bullet hole in a rear upstairs window of Kane's home. Inside the kitchen, officers found a bullet hole in the window with a downward-angle trajectory toward the car and a spent 9mm casing on the floor, the complaint states.
Kane was arrested. While being transported, he told officers he was a competitive three-gun shooter who had placed in the top 10 multiple times and said his life was now over "due to an accident," court documents say.
Officers executed a search warrant at Kane's home and recovered two long guns and a significant quantity of ammunition. In a post-Miranda interview, Kane said the neighbors had recently made many statements that caused him to fear for his life, the complaint states.
Second-degree assault carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
