Federal authorities say a 19-year-old St. Paul man involved in a shootout between occupants of two vehicles last year that led to a police pursuit and a crash into a downtown restaurant has pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun.

Moesha Isiah Hart

Moesha Isiah Hart was among the three people arrested after one of the SUVs, which was stolen, crashed into the Ox Cart Ale House in Lowertown, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.

According to the charges, St. Paul police were called just before 4:30 p.m. Feb. 15, 2023, on a report of shots fired in the 300 block of Luella Street near Interstate 94 and Ruth Street. The caller said people in a black Jeep were chasing and shooting at the occupants of a white Jeep and that the gunfire sounded as if it were from an automatic weapon.

Officers spotted the black Jeep near Third and Ruth streets; the front license plate was missing and the rear window had been shot out. The driver fled. Officers pursued the Jeep on Ruth Street to Minnehaha Avenue, McKnight Road and Interstate 94. When the Jeep exited the freeway at Sixth Street, the police pursuit was terminated for safety reasons, the complaint said.

The Jeep continued to flee and eventually ran a red light at Sixth and Wall streets, crashed into another vehicle and then into the unoccupied Ox Cart Ale House, which was temporarily closed. The driver of the struck vehicle was not injured.

The three suspects then jumped out of the Jeep and tried to flee police on foot before being arrested. In addition to Hart, James Quran Baker, 18, and a 17-year-old male were arrested.

On the floor of the restaurant, near the Jeep’s driver’s side door, officers recovered a loaded Glock Model 45 9-mm pistol with an inserted high-capacity magazine and an attached switch, a conversion device that turns a handgun into a fully automatic machine gun. Approximately 11 cartridge casings were located in and around the driver’s area of the Jeep, including one outside the Jeep on the floor of the restaurant. Police later determined that the Jeep had been reported stolen in St. Paul in December 2022.

Hart was charged with motor vehicle theft, fleeing police in a motor vehicle, aiding and abetting drive-by shooting, possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm without a permit.

Hart pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court before Judge Jerry W. Blackwell to one count of possession of a machine gun. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled later.

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