Charges: Man fatally shot after intervening in domestic assault in St. Paul

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A 19-year-old man is charged with murder for allegedly shooting a man who intervened in a fight he was having with his girlfriend in St. Paul, Minnesota early Friday morning. 

Theotis Thomas, 19, of St. Paul is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Mark Franklin Jr., 21. It was the sixth murder in St. Paul this year. 

Shortly after 4 a.m. Friday, someone called 911 to report a shooting at a house on the 600 block of Elfelt Street. Officers learned that Franklin had been shot in the head and had been taken to Regions Hospital in a private vehicle. He was pronounced dead at 6:40 a.m. 

According to the charges, witnesses told police Thomas got into an argument with his girlfriend. When Thomas starting strangling her, Franklin intervened and slammed him down on the bed. 

Thomas was allegedly upset that Franklin had gotten involved and threatened to shoot everyone in the house and left. 

He returned a short time later with a gun. He found Franklin, shot him in the face and fled, according to multiple witnesses. 

Officers later located a car belonging to Thomas’ girlfriend that he frequently drives. Officers recovered a Ruger .380 caliber handgun from under the driver’s seat. The missing rounds in the gun matched the shell casings found at the scene. 

Thomas turned himself in later that day. In an interview with police, he claimed he was too drunk and stoned to recall the events of that shooting. 

Thomas has a juvenile adjudication for second-degree assault that makes him ineligible to possess a firearm or ammunition.