Woman Charged After 4 Held Hostage in Saint Paul Gas Station
A woman accused of holding four people hostage at gunpoint inside an east Saint Paul gas station earlier this week has now been charged with four counts of kidnapping.
Kanisha Deon Wiggins, 31, of Saint Paul, was arrested after a SWAT team breached the door of the Speedway station at 846 Johnson Pkwy. on Tuesday, March 1.
Officers were called there around 3:10 p.m. for the report of a hostage situation. When police arrived outside the Speedway, they saw Wiggins in the common area of the store, armed with a pistol, court documents say.
Wiggins appeared agitated, was pacing back and forth and gesturing with the gun.
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Police used a loudspeaker to try and talk with Wiggins, who demanded to speak to her father, who she said was in federal prison. Wiggins then threatened to shoot the hostages inside the gas station if she wasn’t allowed to talk with her father, the documents say.
During the negotiation, Wiggins said she would let one hostage leave the store to retrieve Wiggins’ cell phone. If the hostage didn’t return, Wiggins threatened to shoot the remaining hostages inside.
A female hostage was able to run to safety and police reported a short time later hearing a gunshot from inside the Speedway.
Officers breached the locked business door by shooting out and prying the glass panel off of the front door. Wiggins reportedly ran to the back of the business and into a storage room.
Police on scene brought the three hostages to safety and found Wiggins in the back, where they also found a black and silver handgun with a 9mm round in the chamber, according to the criminal complaint.
Investigators pieced together the moments before Wiggins’ apprehension by interviewing witnesses and employees, who told officers that Wiggins had previously worked at the Speedway store.
Wiggins allegedly came in the store and talked with a current employee, saying that she needed help.
Wiggins and the employee went to the back office to talk, but Wiggins allegedly pulled out a gun and ordered the employee to “get rid” of the customers, the court documents said.
Officers on scene of a hostage situation at the Speedway at 846 Johnson Pkwy. in Saint Paul on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Photo from Saint Paul Police Department
Wiggins yelled for the doors to be locked, then rounded up four of the remaining customers into the cash register area, behind the plexiglass.
During the course of the incident, Wiggins is said to have yelled over the gas station intercom system and told others inside that she wanted to livestream the hostage situation on Facebook Live.
Witnesses told investigators that—after about an hour—Wiggins sent one of the hostages out to the parking lot to get her phone.
The hostage did not return, and Wiggins became frustrated, firing off a round inside the store. The bullet didn’t hit anyone, but Wiggins ordered one of the hostages to lay down on the floor as if he’d been struck.
The hostage complied and fell to the floor. Police officers outside radioed that shots had been fired from inside and they breached the front door, securing the three hostages shortly after.
No one was injured in the ordeal.
After being arrested, Wiggins told police that she had been kidnapped by a family and that they had set up her father.
FACEBOOK: Our post on the hostage situation Tuesday, Mar. 1
An investigator spoke to Wiggins’ mother, who said that her daughter is unstable, though hasn’t been diagnosed with a mental illness, according to the court documents. Wiggins’ mother said she had been “acting strangely” since returning from Tennessee in Dec. 2021 and had gotten “into witchcraft and spiritual stuff.”
The day before the incident, police were called to an address on Case Ave. E. in Saint Paul, where Wiggins reported that her father had given her autistic, non-verbal brother a piece of cake with poison in it. Medics assessed the brother and found no evidence he’d been poisoned.
At Wiggins’ initial hearing on Thursday, the judge ordered a competency evaluation be completed. Wiggins will be confined until her next court date, set for April 13, according to court documents.
Wiggins faces four felony counts of kidnapping (for ransom, reward or as a shield), which each carry a max penalty of 40 years in prison and/or a $50,000 fine.
Her bail was set Thursday at $400,000.