On the evening of December 7, 2000, 43-year-old Vickie Mollenhoff was working as a cashier at the Minni-Market on the East Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her life was tragically cut short in a senseless act of violence during a botched robbery. Three men, Raymond Waddell, Anthony Williams, and Jerry Carroll, after failing to sell purported methamphetamine, made the fateful decision to rob the market.
Waddell, armed with a gun concealed in the pocket of a light-colored hooded sweatshirt,
entered the store with Williams. They gathered some candy and approached the register where Mollenhoff was working. As she rang up their items, Waddell produced the firearm, pointed it at her, and demanded money. When Mollenhoff was unable to open the cash register, Waddell shot her in the face, ending her life. The owner of the market, Daniel Su, was also present in the store at the time of the incident.
Unbeknownst to the assailants, another customer had taken refuge in the restroom and was on the phone with the Saint Paul Police Department, reporting the shooting as it unfolded. The first officers to arrive on the scene were able to get a description of the suspects from this courageous witness. They were also aided by surveillance video from the store. A witness who had been in the parking lot shortly before the shooting reported seeing two or three Black males sitting outside next to a station wagon.
Police dispatches immediately went out, describing two suspects involved in the shooting. The initial descriptions were of one man approximately 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, wearing a black ski mask and a black sweatshirt, and a second, thinner man in baggy corduroys. These descriptions were later updated to include a dark blue or black station wagon, possibly a Chevrolet Celebrity, carrying three Black males. The suspects were described as being in their 20s and armed and dangerous.
Approximately two and a half hours after the murder, about six to eight miles from the Minni-Market, an officer on patrol in the Frogtown area of Saint Paul spotted a dark, dirty station wagon that matched the description of the getaway vehicle. The car contained four Black males in their 20s. Believing this to be the vehicle from the Minni-Market shooting, the officer initiated a traffic stop. Inside the vehicle, police found a large hooded sweatshirt matching the description of the one worn by the shooter. Raymond Waddell was taken into custody and subsequently convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Vickie Mollenhoff.
