A St. Paul 19-year-old has pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a machine gun following a shooting incident last year that ended with the defendant crashing the stolen vehicle he was driving through a restaurant, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger.
Moeshea Isiah Hart was just a month past his 18th birthday last February when he was involved in a drive-by shooting in St. Paul and then fled from police at high speed before crashing through the Ox Cart Ale House restaurant in downtown St. Paul, which was unoccupied at the time.
On the afternoon of Feb. 15, 2023, officers with the St. Paul Police Department responded to a shots-fired 911 call in the area of Luella Street North and Wilson Avenue. Witnesses reported hearing automatic gunfire coming from a black Jeep traveling westbound on Wilson Avenue that was apparently chasing another Jeep. Within a few blocks of the area, officers located a black Jeep with a rear window that appeared to have been shot up. When officers turned around in their squad car to follow the Jeep, it led officers on a high-speed chase until it eventually hit another vehicle and crashed through the restaurant, according to court documents.
The driver of the Jeep, later identified as Hart, was undeterred by the crash and tried to unsuccessfully ram the Jeep through the business, the charges said. When that failed, all three occupants of the vehicle tried to flee on foot before they were apprehended.
The key fob to the Jeep was in Hart’s pocket, and on the floor of the restaurant, near the Jeep’s driver’s side door, officers recovered a Glock 9mm pistol loaded with a “high-capacity” magazine and an attached switch, a conversion device that turns a handgun into a fully automatic machine gun.
Police located approximately 11 discharged 9mm bullet casings in and around the driver’s area of the Jeep, including one outside the Jeep on the floor of the restaurant. Police later determined that the Jeep had been reported stolen from St. Paul in December 2022.
Hart pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court before Judge Jerry W. Blackwell to one count of possession of a machine gun. A sentencing hearing date will be scheduled at a later time.
The case was the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the St. Paul Police Department, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
