After he shot four people inside an SUV, authorities say Antoine Darnique Suggs drove around St. Paul for hours, stopped to talk with his mother, got gas and a drink, and asked his father to follow him to Wisconsin where he dumped the vehicle in a cornfield.
He was in and out of the car containing the bodies for about seven hours, according to a timeline police put together using video footage, cellphone data and witness reports that is laid out in criminal charges.
So much blood had pooled in the SUV that police found puddles of it at different places where he had parked.
“Suggs told his father that he snapped and shot a couple of people,” is all the criminal complaint offers as a motive for the quadruple homicide.
Suggs, 38, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with four counts of second-degree murder with intent in the fatal shooting deaths of siblings Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, and Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, both of St. Paul; and friends Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater; and Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul.
POLICE TIMELINE OF EVENTS
Events leading to their deaths unfolded over a two- to three-hour time period in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, according to the police investigation:
- 1 a.m. — Witnesses told police Sturm and Foreman, who were dating, and Pettus were hanging out on the patio at Shamrocks bar at 955 W. Seventh St. in St. Paul.
- After 1 a.m. — An employee at the White Squirrel Bar, located at 974 W. Seventh St. in St. Paul, told police that Sturm came in and that Flug-Presley was with a man who looked like Suggs.
- 1:38 a.m. — Investigators found a receipt for the White Squirrel from a purchase by Foreman. A witness told police the group got into a black SUV, a Mercedes.
- 2:50 a.m. — Suggs returns to the White Squirrel.
- 3:08 a.m. — Foreman creates a phone contact for Suggs, according to phone data.
- 3:30 a.m. — Suggs’ phone and the Mercedes park for a time. This is when police believe Suggs shot the four.
- 3:48 a.m. — Surveillance video shows the Mercedes drive west on Seventh Street toward the McDonald’s near Madison Street. The SUV then headed toward Shepard Road, but returned to Seventh Street and headed east. Video surveillance captures the passenger side and it appears Flug-Presley is slumped over in the seat.
- 4:30 a.m. — Suggs places a phone call to his father, Darren Lee Osborne, 56, of St. Paul.
- 5:00 a.m. — Suggs meets up with Osborne. Suggs tells his father he shot some people and asks him to follow him in another vehicle so he can dump the car and get a ride back.
- 7:42 a.m. — Surveillance video from University Avenue and Eustis Street shows the Mercedes following a Nissan Rogue. Flug-Presley is seen slumped in the same position she was found dead in hours later.
- 9:48 a.m. — Video from the Holiday gas station at 281 N. Snelling Ave. shows the Mercedes at a gas pump. Flug-Presley’s body is visible. Suggs entered the store.
- 10:06 a.m. — Cell tower data show Pettus’ phone in the area of Interstate 94 and Dale Street heading east toward Wisconsin.
- 10:26 a.m. — Minnesota Department of Transportation video shows the Mercedes and Nissan at the Minnesota and Wisconsin border.
- 2:18 p.m. — The Mercedes and the four bodies are discovered in a cornfield in Dunn County, Wis.
FOUR VIOLENT DEATHS
The violence of the victims’ deaths can be seen through the Ramsey County medical examiner’s autopsy reports detailed in the complaint.
Flug-Presley had a gunshot wound that entered her mouth and out the back of her head. Pettus had two gunshot wounds to the back of his head and a third gunshot wound to his left arm. Foreman had a gunshot wound to his face and the top of his head. Sturm had a gunshot wound that went through her left palm and into her face.
Last week, Dunn County authorities charged Suggs with four counts of hiding a corpse. Suggs, who had flown back to his residence in Arizona, turned himself in to authorities.
Police are still uncertain what caused Suggs to allegedly kill the four people he had been hanging out with that early Sunday morning. The criminal complaint gives a few clues.
A witness said Suggs was arguing at the White Squirrel and said something to the effect of, “having six children and this happening every time he comes back to Minnesota.”
Osborne told police that Suggs had spoken to him and his mother about taking care of his kids and trying to get along with each other, according to the complaint.
‘HE SNAPPED AND SHOT A COUPLE OF PEOPLE’
When Suggs was alone with his father, Suggs told him that “he snapped and shot a couple of people” and that the “shooting happened in the vehicle on Seventh Street,” the criminal complaint states.
After following Suggs to Wisconsin, Osborne dropped him off in Minneapolis. Osborne denied knowing there were bodies in the SUV. When the two headed for the border, they left their phones in St. Paul, the complaint states.
“The phones never physically moved past the area of Lexington Parkway and Interstate 94,” the complaint states.
Suggs has a prior conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He also has a prior conviction of aggravated domestic assault.
Suggs remains in custody in Arizona awaiting extradition. The Ramsey County attorney’s office is requesting bail be set at $10 million.
