The fatal shooting of a woman painting outside her residence in St. Paul’s Lowertown happened about one minute after the suspect walked past her and turned back around, according to new information from police in a search warrant.

Carrie Shobe Kwok, 66, didn’t know the man who killed her and they didn’t have a conflict before he opened fire, St. Paul’s police chief said last week of evidence in the case.

The search warrant affidavit describes how police quickly found the suspect, including: A resident in a downtown apartment heard the gunfire and grabbed his high-powered binoculars, then provided information to police describing the suspect’s vehicle. And police used surveillance videos and license plate readers to track the suspect, finding him back at his residence in Belle Plaine in Scott County.

Seantrell Tyreese Murdock (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

There was a confrontation between the suspect, Seantrell Tyreese Murdock, and St. Paul officers, who shot the 29-year-old about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, just over 24 hours after Kwok was killed. Murdock died at a Minneapolis hospital soon after.

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said last week that surveillance video of the homicide was “one of the most cold-blooded things I’ve ever seen in my life and … what appears to be, right now, a random act.” Police continue to investigate, though “we don’t know if we’ll ever get answers,” Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman, said Monday.

The case was solved because “officers did an amazing job in responding to that scene and very, very quickly established evidence and information and leads that led us to identify a vehicle and get photographs of the driver of that vehicle, who was the suspect in this awful, awful murder,” Henry said.

Witnesses, video evidence

Kwok, a mother of two and grandmother of four, had moved into the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative in February. She worked with vintage clothing, textile art and handmade jewelry, and enjoyed sewing, home design and remodeling. She was a woman of strong faith, her son has said.

“It’s just unbelievable for us,” said Julie Shobe, a sister of Kwok’s, on Friday.

Kwok was painting a large patterned mural in the co-op’s parking lot — the residents were working on it in the run-up to the fall St. Paul Art Crawl this weekend.

The search warrant, which a judge granted for Murdock’s residence, gives the following information:

At 5:18 p.m. Wednesday, officers were sent on a report of shots fired in the alley behind Kellogg Boulevard, between Wacouta and Wall streets, at the co-op’s parking lot. A 911 caller reported a neighbor had just been shot.

Officers found Kwok suffering from gunshot wounds and unresponsive. St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced her dead.

Responding officers spoke to multiple witnesses at the scene. One witness told police she was parking her vehicle and saw Kwok painting. She heard a shot fired, looked through her window and saw the suspect. She heard a total of two to three shots, and saw the suspect shooting Kwok.

Someone who called police reported the suspect left in a vehicle through the alley, and described it as an older-model silver sedan with rust on the roof.

Officers noted there were multiple surveillance cameras in the area surrounding the crime scene. Personnel from the department’s video management unit responded to the scene and collected video. Video showed the suspect vehicle, a silver Chevrolet Malibu, leaving the scene after the shooting. The car registered to Murdock at an address in the 100 block of Meridian Street in Belle Plaine, 40 miles southwest of the Twin Cities.

Police could also see the suspect’s face in a video and compared it to Murdock’s driver’s license photo in a law enforcement database, and the affidavit said they matched.

Surveillance video from a nearby apartment building showed Kwok was painting a mural on the ground, investigators found. She appeared to be facing a wall and was slightly bent over.

The suspect vehicle drove in the alley at 5:14 p.m. It stopped and a person exited. The suspect was wearing all black clothing and had a black hood over his head. At 5:15 p.m., the suspect walked past Kwok. He briefly paused near a vehicle parked in the lot. He then turned and walked back in the direction of Kwok. At 5:16 p.m., he shot Kwok. Four shots were heard on video.

The suspect, who police said was Murdock, returned to his vehicle and drove out of the alley. He was the only person in the vehicle.

Investigators later spoke with a man who lives on a high floor of a downtown apartment building. He reported he heard two to three shots and knew it was gunfire, followed by two to three another shots. He said he immediately looked out his window in the direction of the shots, and saw a male with an object in his right hand; he believed it was a gun.

The witness grabbed his binoculars and continued to watch the male. He saw him exit the alley and leave in a gray sedan or hatchback, he told police.

Tracked vehicle to Scott County

Officers at the scene of the homicide reported the vehicle turned from the alley and headed onto Kellogg Boulevard. A sergeant found surveillance video of the suspect vehicle and tracked it going through downtown St. Paul “at a high rate of speed,” the affidavit said. It then went out of view of closed-circuit television cameras.

Carrie Shobe Kwok, 66, was fatally shot in St. Paul’s Lowertown on Sept. 25, 2024. (Courtesy of Julie Shobe)

License plate reader data showed the vehicle crossed the Ford Bridge into Minneapolis about 14 minutes after the homicide.

Another sergeant was told the suspect vehicle was seen on CCTV video heading toward Minneapolis. He spoke with a Minneapolis officer about license plate reader data that showed the vehicle parked at East 36th Street near Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis officer went back to the spot, but the vehicle was no longer there. The officer told the St. Paul sergeant that they were being informed that the vehicle was showing up on a license plate reader in Belle Plaine.

St. Paul officers went to Belle Plaine, nearly an hour from where Kwok was killed. They conducted surveillance at Murdock’s residence, where he and family members were renters, and saw the suspect vehicle in a nearby alley.

Belle Plaine police provided Murdock’s phone number to investigators, who requested emergency information from the cellphone service provider. Location data showed the phone was in the area of the shooting, the affidavit said.

Police continued to conduct surveillance of the address. Murdock left his residence, was approached by officers, displayed a weapon and officers shot him, the affidavit said of preliminary information.

While carrying out the search warrant Thursday morning, police found a gun in a purse in a bedroom closet, an empty box for a different type of gun, two BB guns, and ammunition in various places, according to an inventory receipt.

Murdock was charged in 2016 with possession of a firearm by a person ineligible due to a conviction of a crime of violence; he couldn’t have a gun because of a 2013 felony burglary conviction, the criminal complaint said.

Court filings show that Murdock was admitted to a hospital in January 2023 and, at the time, he was alleged to pose a risk of harm due to his mental illness and chemical dependency, a judge wrote. At the time, his mother told hospital staff he “had access to a firearm and she was fearful for her son’s safety,” according to a court filing.

Civil commitment for Murdock was stayed for six months, concluding August 2023, on various conditions — including that he take prescribed medication and cooperate with Scott County Adult Mental Health case management.

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