Prosecutors filed murder and kidnapping charges just before noon today against a St. Paul man held in the Saturday shooting death of a Maplewood police officer. Joshua Michael Martin, 21, was one o…
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Charges: Suspect in murder of Maplewood police officer told friend,
‘We … smoked that cop’
Joshua Michael Martin, left, and Jason John Jones. (St. Paul police)
Prosecutors filed murder and kidnapping charges just before noon today against a St. Paul man held in the Saturday shooting death of a Maplewood police officer.
Joshua Michael Martin, 21, was one of two men who carjacked a GMC Envoy whose 30-year-old driver had stopped at the Corner Gas station 304 E. Larpenteur Ave., according to the criminal complaint.
“We jacked that guy and we smoked that cop,” Martin bragged to another man he had called to give him a ride later Saturday morning from Selby and Western avenues, the complaint said.
The other suspect,
Jason John Jones, 21, was killed by a St. Paul officer who assisted in the manhunt. Before he was shot to death, Jones attacked Officer David Longbehn with a large bolt wrapped in cloth, breaking his nose and the bones around his eye, police said.
Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said if her office decides to pursue a first-degree murder charge against Martin, a grand jury would be convened.
Police also arrested two people on suspicion of aiding an offender in the shooting of the Maplewood officer.
James Irvin Lentz, 21, of St. Paul, was arrested Sunday afternoon and Angelina Elizabeth Koepke, 23, of St. Paul, this morning.
Police received information that Lentz provided transportation to Martin after the shooting and “did so with knowledge of at least some of the circumstances of the previous crimes,” according to a statement from police.
Police had information that Koepke “had information and/or knowledge about the previous activities of Joshua Martin that she did not disclose to investigators in an earlier interview,” according to the police statement.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office will be considering charges against the two.
The events unfolded this way, according to the complaint:
Sgt. Joseph Bergeron responded to a call about the carjacking and drove his marked squad car down the Bruce Vento trail until just north of Arlington Street in St. Paul. He radioed that he was out with two people.
A male voice then came over the radio yelling that the officer had been shot, and that a white man and a black man were running south.
The male voice belonged to a jogger who had greeted the police officer as he drove past him. The jogger then saw two men approach the squad car as if they were going to ask the officer a question, according to a search warrant affidavit filed today.
The jogger — a retired firefighter — saw the black male, later identified as Jason Jones of St. Paul, point a gun at his face “at point blank range” and fire one shot, the affidavit and complaint said. The jogger grabbed the radio off the officer’s duty belt and used it to call for help.
But Bergeron, 49, was dead at the scene. A medical examiner said that he died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Martin faces one count of intentional second-degree murder and one count of kidnapping.
At a hearing this afternoon, Ramsey County District Court Judge Salvador Rosas set bail at $2 million, at the request of the prosecution.
Martin was wearing a green Kevlar gown, which sheriff’s deputies described as a suicide prevention garment.
Martin’s defense attorney, Nicole Kubista, requested that any investigators who want to talk to Martin notify the public defender’s office first. Martin’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 17.
The complaint says the carjacking victim told them that both men who jumped into his car at the gas station pointed guns at him and told him to drive. He told them he didn’t have any money. He eventually said he had money at his house, and pretended to bring them there. Instead, he jumped out and began knocking on doors in the 1300 block of Ripley Street in Maplewood.
At that point, the two suspects took off on foot, he told police.
Using surveillance video and their prior knowledge of the suspects, police believed they were Jones and Martin. They set up a perimeter around the area where Bergeron had been shot.
Longbehn was at Ivy Avenue and Birmingham Street in St. Paul, several blocks from shooting scene, when, witnesses said, a man approached him talking very loudly on his cell phone and carrying what looked like a toolbox.
Longbehn ordered Jones to stop and began to frisk him. That’s when Jones attacked him, the complaint said. Longbehn tried to subdue Jones; they struggled and the officer shot him several times, killing him.
Martin talked with police from his parents’ home in the 600 block of Selby Avenue, saying he would not turn himself in and that he was angry that police had killed his “brother,” Jones.
Martin later went to an apartment near Duluth Street and Case Avenue in St. Paul. Police persuaded him to surrender after he talked of killing himself. He had several knife cuts on his wrists when he came out, the complaint said.
When police interviewed him, Martin said that the SUV driver approached him and Jones because the driver wanted marijuana. They agreed to help him go look for some. Martin said the man drove to a house that he said was his and they all got out. The man started running so they ran too, Martin said.
He and Jones ran down the trail until the officer stopped them.
Martin said Jones pointed the gun at Bergeron and shot him. He denied having a gun and said he did not know Jones had one until he saw it in the officer’s face.
Police recovered a .380 Bryco Arms pistol near 1415 McAfee in St. Paul, several blocks from the homicide scene.
