A Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy was shot at two weeks ago in St. Paul. Not accidentally or by happenstance or because he was part of a standoff with a bank robber. No, the deputy, Joe Kill, was shot at while in pursuit of a reckless driver.

St. Paul police initially tried to pull over the reckless driver, but the driver sped off and the St. Paul officer did not give chase, but advertised the problem on his radio. Kill heard the dispatch, saw the car almost immediately, and turned on his lights and siren.

Kill pursued the car. They got to the 900 block of Euclid Street.

The passenger in the fleeing car leaned out the window and fired a rifle at Kill. Multiple shots fired at a sheriff’s deputy. Kill was struck by shrapnel, the plastic and metal bits exploding in his car. He was also struck on the strap of his protective vest. He was not seriously injured, meaning he experienced the thin line between death and getting to go home.

“He tried to kill one of our deputies,” the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said.

I don’t know if this episode made the mayor’s State of the City address, or if the city council acknowledged this event, as busy as they are trying to bring peace to Gaza.

But this is the state of the city. As the police chief, Axel Henry, said, “if you would shoot at a cop, you would shoot at anybody.”

The fleeing car was soon enough found, on the 1000 block of Pacific Street. And just a few days ago, St. Paul police carried out a search warrant on the same block and arrested the 20-year-old alleged shooter. Later that same day, a 17-year-old, allegedly the reckless driver, turned himself in. The shooter is charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault and drive-by shooting. The driver is charged with suspicion of aiding and abetting attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted second-degree assault and fleeing a police officer.

Maybe this time the charges will stick, although we are not shy of elected and non-elected professional mourners who can produce crocodile tears on demand and tell us just how terribly misunderstood the lads are.

The shooter could have been in jail March 1, where it would have been virtually impossible for him to try to shoot a cop.

Last summer, St. Paul officers saw a Chevrolet Cruz that was wanted for its presence at a shooting in St. Paul, in which 27 shell casings were recovered. Police tried to pull that car over, but it took off and crashed into a parked car. A woman, 19, was driving. Her passenger, identified as the same 20-year-old in the current case, ran. They caught him. His backpack did not contain his Roy Rogers school lunchbox. It contained a handgun with a loaded magazine, another handgun with an extended magazine, a round in the chamber and an obliterated serial number, according to the criminal complaint.

Breaks were cut. He entered an Alford plea, maintaining innocence while acknowledging the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him. His attorney noted the guy had no previous convictions and said the sentencing guidelines for the felony called for a stayed sentence for one year and a day. His attorney asked for a gross misdemeanor. He got it.

The 20-year-old was sentenced in January to 360 days in the workhouse with the sentence stayed for two years. He was placed on probation for two years.

While on probation, he tried to kill a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy.

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Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.