[b0] Two St. Paul police officers were legally justified when they shot and wounded a suspected car thief who pointed a handgun at them last December, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office announced, closing out a nine-month review of a shooting that began with a remotely disabled stolen car on a highway ramp and ended with 33-year-old Elliot Samuels Vaughn with a bullet wound to his thigh.
According to a report from the Pioneer Press, the incident started at 5:39 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2025, when a tracker showed a Buick Envista had been taken from a vehicle rental company’s parking garage in Minneapolis. The company also reported that two other vehicles were stolen from the same garage around the same time, according to Bring Me The News.
General Motors began tracking the Buick electronically at about 3 p.m. that afternoon, per the Pioneer Press report, and notified St. Paul police that the vehicle was being driven in the city. Officers Matthew Foy and Byron Treangen III were told by a 911 dispatcher that the Buick was near them at about 3:13 p.m., and two minutes later, GM remotely slowed and stopped the vehicle near the Interstate 94 west exit ramp off U.S. 52.
A Foot Pursuit Turns Into Gunfire
[b4] Vaughn had driven the Buick southbound across the U.S. 52 bridge before exiting and getting back onto the highway, then headed north, according to the Pioneer Press account. Once the car rolled to a stop, Vaughn exited the driver’s seat while a woman passenger exited from the other side. Officers said Vaughn ran in the middle of the ramp toward Interstate 94 while they remained in their police SUV, and he was reportedly about 10 feet from the vehicle…