A man was shot in St. Paul’s Frogtown area early Wednesday and someone drove him to Regions Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Multiple 911 callers reported shots fired just before 1 a.m. near Lafond Avenue and Grotto Street with people screaming and driving away. One person reported someone had been shot.

“These calls described a chaotic scene,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.

Officers did not find the victim in the area, but then another 911 came in, reporting a victim was being brought to Regions in a private vehicle. The man, who’d been shot multiple times, arrived at Regions and died soon after, Ernster said.

No one was under arrest as of Wednesday afternoon. Police canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses and are investigating the circumstances of the shooting.

“We do have some witnesses that we’ve talked to, but we know there’s more people out there who have information,” Ernster said. Investigators are asking them to contact them at 651-266-5650.

Police plan to release the victim’s name after the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office confirms his identity.

The homicide was the seventh of the year in St. Paul; there were eight as of this time last year.

On Monday in St. Paul, a 19-year-old man died in a shooting in an apartment in Merriam Park and prosecutors charged his 18-year-old friend with manslaughter Tuesday.

— Mara H. Gottfried

Recycling truck dumps smoking load on Summit Avenue

When a Eureka Recycling truck dumped a smoking load onto the frontage road of Summit Avenue near Macalester College around midday Tuesday, there was no ill will intended. It was the quickest way to put out a fire, likely caused by an improperly disposed of lithium battery.

“This is what we call a hot load in our industry,” said Katie Drews, co-president and chief executive officer of Eureka Recycling. “Fortunately, and unfortunately, we’re a little used to having to deal with fires in this industry. Our driver was able to act really quickly. No one was harmed. There’s some damage to the truck.”

Lithium batteries have become commonplace in consumer products, from cellphones to power tools and even light-up greeting cards, but they should never be tossed in with the recycling.

That’s because they can catch fire when compacted, posing special dangers in recycling facilities, which are chock-full of paper and other flammables.

“Facilities like ours have a really hard time insuring,” Drews said. “The costs are astronomical, and those costs are burdened on the residents. This is why costs have gone up nationwide — to cover the insurance.”

On Wednesday, the St. Paul Fire Department circulated pictures of the smoldering recyclables on social media, and the sizable heap of smoking cardboard and other material made for quite a sight.

“Yesterday a recycling truck dumped its load on the 1600 block of Summit Ave after a fire was discovered,” reads the message from the fire department on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire. Improper disposal of batteries, smoking materials and chemicals are the most common causes of such fires.”

— Frederick Melo