Man gets 3 years for drive-by shooting, chase that ended with crash into St. Paul bar
A St. Paul man responsible for a drive-by shooting and police chase that ended with him crashing a stolen Jeep into a downtown bar was sentenced to more than three years in prison on Thursday.
Moeshea Isiah Hart, 19, was sentenced to 39 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for the illegal possession of a machine gun after he pleaded guilty on Mar. 27.
St. Paul PD received a shots fired 911 call on February 15, 2023, in the neighborhood of Luella Street North and Wilson Avenue, with witnesses saying they heard gunfire coming from a black Jeep that was chasing another vehicle.
Officers found the black Jeep within a few blocks of the area and saw bullet damage on the rear window.
Police at the scene in Lowertown St. Paul where a vehicle crashed into a business late Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Christine Schuster | Bring Me The News.
When officers began to follow the Jeep, Hart led them on a high-speed chase that hit speeds of 90 mph until Hart hit another vehicle and crashed into the Ox Cart Ale House at 255 6th St. E., which was empty. Officers saw Hart and two others get out of the Jeep and arrested them.
On the floor of the restaurant, officers retrieved a loaded Glock model 45 9mm pistol with an inserted high-capacity magazine and an attached switch. This conversion device turns a semiautomatic handgun into a fully automatic machine gun.
According to police, 11 9mm casings were found in and around the driver’s side of the Jeep, including one outside the Jeep on the floor of the restaurant.
Forensic ballistics analysis determined that the 9mm machine gun had fired one randomly selected discharged cartridge casing. Police later discovered that the Jeep had been reported stolen from St. Paul in December 2022.
