Police are investigating a fatal daytime shooting at a St. Paul strip mall on Tuesday.

Law enforcement took a male into custody after a man was killed in the 1300 block of East Maryland Avenue by Etna Street on the Greater East Side.

Officers responded just before 12:30 p.m. to multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire and a person shot. They found the victim, who had collapsed in front of a tobacco shop. He had been shot in the torso and St. Paul Fire Department medics intended to take him to the hospital, but he died in an ambulance, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The suspect was reported to have run away. Maplewood police and Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies assisted St. Paul with securing the area. St. Paul officers and sheriff’s deputies found a male and chased him, Ernster said. They took him into custody about half a mile from the shooting, in the 1500 block of Clear Avenue. They also found a handgun.

Police brought the male in for questioning, and homicide investigators are working to determine what led to the shooting. The police department plans to release the victim’s name after his identity is confirmed by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“Anytime anybody decides to use a gun … especially midday, in such a high density area, it’s concerning,” Ernster said. “… Maryland (Avenue) is an arterial street that has many people on it. … Unfortunately, a man died in this incident, but we’re very lucky that nobody else was injured.”

Earlier Tuesday, two teenagers were wounded in a shooting about two miles away, also on East Maryland Avenue. That case appears unrelated to the homicide, Ernster said of preliminary information.

Officers responded about 9:45 a.m. to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of East Maryland between Burr and Bradley streets in Payne-Phalen. Police found two males, a 16- and an 18-year-old, who had each been shot. Medics took them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. No one was under arrest as of early Tuesday evening.

The last homicide of the year in St. Paul was more than a month ago, when retired priest Lawrence Johnson was killed on Aug. 1. Tuesday’s homicide was the 18th of the year in the city. There were 24 homicides as of this time last year.

The St. Paul Police Department counts 17 homicides this year because the department’s records are for cases investigated by the city’s police department. Another homicide in St. Paul this year was investigated by Metro Transit Police.