St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter confirmed Tuesday that he will run for a third term in office come November, truncated as that term may be by the capital city’s shift to even-year municipal elections.

Carter, who handily won reelection in 2021, has not made an official campaign announcement but responded to a question about his political plans during a “Breakfast with the Mayors” event held Tuesday at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Asked by the host if he were up for a third term, Carter said there was no “foreseeable future” in which he would not run.

Carter appeared alongside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for the breakfast, a long-standing New Year’s tradition for the two Twin Cities mayors organized by the St. Paul Area Chamber and the Minneapolis Regional Chamber.

In an effort to boost turnout, St. Paul voters last November approved an effort to shift mayoral and city council elections to even years to coincide with that of the U.S. president. As a result, the winner of this year’s mayoral election will serve for three years, with the next mayoral race unfolding in 2028 instead of 2029.

During the transition to even-year elections, the current city council will serve a fifth year, with the next council races also landing on the ballot in 2028.

Carter is the city’s 46th mayor, its first Black mayor and at the time of his first election in 2017 also was St. Paul’s youngest. In 2021, he received more than 61% of the vote in an eight-way race.

— Frederick Melo

Missing pizza delivery driver dies by suicide

A man who was reported missing from his pizza delivery job in Apple Valley last week died by suicide on Tuesday in St. Paul, police said.

St. Paul officers responded to the 1100 block of Rice Street after a relative of Shuefuab “Shue” Xiong, 42, called 911 about 12:10 p.m. and asked for help with a person having a mental health crisis, police said in a statement.

Xiong was reported missing to Apple Valley police after he left the Domino’s where he worked and didn’t make four scheduled deliveries last Tuesday. In an update Monday, Apple Valley police said a witness reported seeing Xiong sitting in his red Toyota Camry in Superior, Wis., on Saturday; police found the car unoccupied.

The relative who called 911 Tuesday reported “Xiong was threatening to take his own life and had access to firearms being kept inside the residence,” St. Paul police said in Tues

day’s statement.

Police instructed family members to exit the building for their safety. Xiong’s family tried multiple times to contact him and ask him to leave the building to get help.

“As efforts to make contact continued, Xiong ran out of the building and around the corner onto Geranium Avenue West, where he shot himself,” the statement said. He died at the scene.

Xiong’s family said in a Monday statement that they were “deeply concerned for Shue’s safety and well-being” and wanted to find him and get him care due to “the cold temperatures and his uncharacteristic behavior.”

A search party group for Xiong on Facebook had grown to 1,700 members since Apple Valley police asked for the public’s help on Thursday to find him. Relatives and friends, along with people who didn’t know Xiong, posted about where they had searched for him.

— Mara H. Gottfried