On the evening of March 31, 2022, 21-year-old Dion Lamarr Ford Jr. was fatally shot outside a grocery store in Saint Paul’s North End neighborhood. Surveillance footage captured Ford leaving a nearby restaurant with a white plastic bag and walking toward his car at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and Arundel Street around 9:15 p.m., when he was confronted by 21-year-old Xavion Tyrece Bell. An apparent attempted robbery led to an exchange of gunfire; Ford, who held a permit to carry a firearm, drew his weapon and fired, and Bell returned fire. Ford fell and Bell fired multiple additional shots. Callers reported hearing as many as 40 gunshots. Police found Ford with a gunshot wound to the head and a handgun partially in his hand; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bell was wounded in the shootout and charged with second-degree murder; his brother D Angelo S. Dampier, 19 at the time, was charged with aiding an offender and illegal possession of a firearm after admitting to firing a weapon during the incident and removing guns from the scene. At the time of the shooting, Bell was reportedly out on bond for two other violent crime cases. If anyone has information about the shooting or knew Dion, please come forward.