A St. Paul gas station employee was charged Tuesday with shooting and wounding two men outside the business.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting at the Arco Station on Larpenteur Avenue off Interstate 35E about 7 a.m. Sunday. They found a 34-year-old by the gas pumps who’d been shot in the lower back. A 33-year-old man, who was shot in the knee, was in a white sport-utility vehicle nearby at Wheelock Parkway and Mississippi Street.

Police were told the shooter was Antonio Allen Ellis, 22, of West St. Paul. Another gas station employee said the man, who was later shot in the knee, entered the store “and was under the influence of something,” according to the criminal complaint against Ellis. “He made statements indicating that everything in the store was ‘free’ for him.”

Antonio Allen Ellis (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The employee said Ellis has a “short fuse” and started arguing with the man, the complaint continued. Surveillance video from the store showed Ellis taking items from the man and returning them to shelves. The man got very close to Ellis, who pushed him away.

The man told Ellis they should go outside and settle the matter, according to the other store employee. Surveillance video outside the store showed the man was in Ellis’ face, and Ellis began to pull a handgun out of his pocket as the man pulled his arm back to swing a fist toward him. They started to fight.

The other man, who was later shot in the back, jumped out of the white SUV and entered “the fray,” the complaint said. Ellis fell to the ground, the man who exited the SUV appeared to throw a punch at Ellis, and Ellis displayed his gun.

Both men retreated, and Ellis fired toward them and continued firing as they retreated, the complaint said.

Ellis ran away. Officers located 14 casings in front of the store. Police didn’t find a firearm on either of the wounded men.

Ellis later turned himself in to St. Paul police and did not speak with investigators. He did not have a permit to carry a firearm, the complaint said.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Ellis with two counts of second-degree assault causing substantial bodily harm. An attorney for Ellis wasn’t listed in the court file as of Tuesday morning.

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