The widow of a man robbed and shot outside a St. Paul bar is calling for the business to be closed down.

Oscar Covington died last week, nearly a month after the Oct. 30 shooting, and his wife says justice is needed after the alleged involvement of a bartender in the case and because she said the bar didn’t take action after the 42-year-old was shot. The owner, however, says he went to Covington and stayed with him until help arrived.

“My husband, a caring and innocent soul, went to a local bar,” Katrina Covington wrote on the Change.org petition. “Little did he know, a tragic fate awaited him — a premeditated setup by one of the bar’s employees led to a despicable robbery. During the harrowing ordeal, he was assaulted and shot, suffering injuries that would ultimately claim his life. The bar owner, shockingly indifferent, did not assist him, nor did they call 911.”

Katrina Covington was not there when her husband was shot, but he called to inform her he’d been injured. She said he also told her that the bar locked its door and he wasn’t able to get back inside for help.

Bar owner Michael Born said on Monday that an employee — not the bartender who is charged in the case — locked the door when she heard gunshots outside, likely because she was scared. Born said the employee called him to tell him about the gunshots and he came upstairs from the basement.

“I asked if anybody called 911 and they said ‘No, he’s on his phone calling 911 right now,” Born said of what people relayed about Oscar Covington. “I said, ‘Are you guys sure about that?’”

Born said he opened the bar’s door and saw Covington in the doorway on a FaceTime call with his wife. Born said he asked him, “Did you call an ambulance?,” but Covington only told him he’d been shot. Born said he could hear sirens approaching and he stayed with Covington until the police “came and took over.”

The criminal complaint said officers were dispatched about 5:45 p.m. on Oct. 30 and that a 911 caller reported that he saw Covington being beat and then shot.

Wife: ‘Apathy and greed’ at work

Covington, of Brooklyn Park, went to Born’s Bar on Rice Street about 3:45 p.m. on Oct. 30. He paid for his drinks in cash, and surveillance video showed bartender Erica Ruth Hampton, 41, on her phone, according to a criminal complaint.

After police arrested her on Nov. 21, investigators told Hampton that records “appeared to show her tipping her son off” as she called him minutes before Covington left the bar. Hampton said she had nothing to do with the incident. She said she hadn’t called anyone or told them about the money that Covington had at the bar.

The bar terminated Hampton after the incident, according to Born.

Also charged is Edward G. Robinson, 43. He and Hampton have a 24-year-old son.

Covington left the bar and Robinson began to fight him, with others joining in, according to the complaint. A 39-year-old man shot Covington in the torso.

Covington told police he thought he had about $4,500 in cash on him because he’d planned to buy “a little bike.”

Covington was taken to the hospital and into surgery. He died at the hospital on Nov. 26, and police are investigating the matter as a homicide.

Katrina Covington wrote on the online petition: “This isn’t just a tale of personal loss but a disturbing reflection of a society where the value of life can be undermined by apathy and greed. Moreover, this incident raises serious concerns about the safety and security of such establishments that can harbor criminal elements.”

Edward G. Robinson, 43, and Erica Ruth Hampton, 41. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County sheriff’s office)

Robinson is charged with first-degree riot resulting in death, and two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree robbery. Hampton is charged with aiding an offender by being an accomplice after the fact.

Hampton and Robinson remain jailed, and attorneys for them couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

Two other men are also charged, but their cases remain under seal until their arrests.

Past homicides outside bar

With the Oct. 30 shooting under investigation, the results “will inform any potential licensing actions,” said Casey Rodriguez, St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections spokesman.

The City Council last took adverse action on the Born’s Bar liquor license at the start of 2018, fining the business and ordering a three-day closure after a shooting injured several people outside the bar in August 2017. After the shooting, the manager of Born’s Bar was unable to immediately make a copy of surveillance video for police, which is a condition of the bar’s liquor license, an assistant city attorney wrote in a notice of violation at the time.

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In the Covington case, Michael Born called Hampton back to the bar on Oct. 30 “because something was going on with her son and his father,” she told police after her arrest, according to a complaint. She said she rushed back to the bar and watched the cameras with Born. An officer asked Born if he recognized anyone in the video.

“(Hampton) didn’t respond to the officer’s question because she didn’t have anything to do with it,” the complaint said of her response.

There have been other homicides outside Born’s over the years. In 2018, 40-year-old Eddie Cortez Smith was fatally shot in an altercation on the sidewalk. In 2017, 28-year-old Carlos Michael Rogers was shot and killed outside the bar.

The 2011 fatal shooting of 26-year-old Trevell Glass outside the bar led to changes, including Born’s Bar providing DSI with a security plan.

Oscar Covington’s wife’s petition can be found at chng.it/7V9r9QLvyM.