Arrest Made After 21-year-old Pregnant Woman Fatally Shot
Police have arrested a suspect in connection to a shooting in Saint Paul that left a pregnant 21-year-old woman dead earlier this week.
Paul Dwayne Harris, 24, was arrested Thursday afternoon in Jordan and booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of murder.
The victim of the shooting has been identified as Gabriella Dehoyos, 21, of Saint Paul. She was shot in the head near Marion St. & St. Anthony Ave. and was rushed to the hospital.
Dehoyos and her unborn baby later died, and a homicide investigation was started.
TWITTER: Our original thread on the shooting
Harris has two separate felony firearms-related convictions, making him ineligible to possess firearms, and he was on probation at the time of the shooting.
According to a previous criminal complaint filed in 2018, Harris admitted to being a "TFM gang member."
According to charges filed in court Friday:
image via GoFundMe
At about 5 p.m., March 13, a black Kia Rondo SUV pulled up to the emergency room entrance at Regions Hospital. There was what appeared to be a bullet hole in the rear passenger side window. There were three young adults in the car: a male driver, male back seat passenger and female front seat passenger. The female passenger, Dehoyos, had a gunshot wound to her head and was unconscious. Also present in the car were her three small children ages 3, 2, and 1. The driver was distraught and said that Dehoyos was his girlfriend.
Saint Paul police responded immediately, and investigators spoke with the driver at the hospital, once he was able to talk to them. He said he was driving westbound on St. Anthony Ave. in Saint Paul when a silver Ford sedan exited onto St. Anthony from Interstate 94. The driver said as he was moving over into the left turn lane to make a left turn onto Marion St., the silver Ford sedan pulled behind him and moved over to the passenger side of his vehicle.
The victim believed this was because Harris realized he couldn’t get to the driver’s side of the vehicle. The victim was sitting at the stoplight at the intersection, and said he looked over towards the silver Ford sedan and saw that the driver was pointing a handgun in his direction. He stated he recognized the light‐skinned black male and knew him by his street name of "Pauly P."
The victim stated that "Pauly P" had his window rolled partially down, pointing the handgun with his left hand on the steering wheel and his right hand across his left arm pointing the gun out of the window.
When the victim saw the gun, he ducked down and immediately yanked the wheel to the left, turning south onto Marion St. He later told investigators that he heard the back passenger window shatter and that was how he knew that "Pauly P" had fired a shot.
Upon learning where the shooting happened, officers responded to process the scene. A spent shell casing was recovered by officers at the intersection of Marion St. & St. Anthony Ave.
Investigators obtained video recorded by a Minnesota Department of Transportation camera located at Interstate 94 westbound and John Ireland Boulevard. The video corroborates the account provided by the victim of where the shooting occurred.
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Further investigation determined that “Pauly P” is Paul Harris and recent Facebook posts made within days of the shooting show Harris driving in a vehicle while displaying a red handgun in his lap, matching the description of the handgun used in the shooting.
Harris has a girlfriend who owns a grey 2019 Ford Fusion sedan, which she purchased on March 9, 2023. Investigation into Harris’ whereabouts on March 13 included acquiring records for his T‐Mobile cell phone number. A preliminary review of the records revealed that the phone connected to Harris was traveling in Saint Paul in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for a GPS tracking device on March 15 and placed it on Harris’ girlfriend’s Ford Fusion. On March 16, investigators surveilled the vehicle as it left a hotel in Vadnais Heights. When the vehicle stopped at a Holiday gas station in Jordan, Minn., Saint Paul police followed the vehicle, and determined the occupants to be Harris and his girlfriend. They arrested Harris, seized the vehicle and transported his girlfriend to headquarters for an interview.
Harris’s girlfriend denied knowing anything about a shooting. Whe she and Harris were apprehended by police, they had been on their way to visit Harris's friend in North or South Dakota, she told investigators. She planned to come right back once they got to the friend's house, but she didn't think Harris was returning with her. They had no luggage, and when asked about her whereabouts on Monday, March 13, she initially claimed that she drove her car to work and was at work until approximately 5 p.m. When investigators asked whether employer records would show when she left work on Monday, she then altered her story to say she actually left work early on Monday and was home by 3 p.m.
Harris’ girlfriend said she laid down with her baby and took a nap when she got home. She said when she woke up, Harris was just coming back and he'd probably driven her car; he doesn't have a car of his own. She said she dropped him off at his grandmother’s house on Kent later that night.
Harris initially denied knowing anything about the shooting. When asked about his whereabouts on Monday, he said his girlfriend dropped him off at work at 7 a.m. and when he finished at 11 or 12, his grandmother picked him up and he didn’t remember anything after that.
Harris was charged Friday with 2nd-degree murder, 2nd-degree assault and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. He is set to make his initial appearance on Monday morning.
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