On the early morning of May 29, 2020, James M. Cannon Jr., a 32-year-old Black man from Saint Paul, Minnesota, was fatally shot in the West Seventh neighborhood. Cannon had gone to the 1000 block of Otto Street to meet his girlfriend and was outside speaking with another man when a voice was heard and a single gunshot rang out. He fell to the sidewalk, said he had been shot, and was later found on the 700 block of South Lexington Parkway with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to Regions Hospital and died; the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Investigators arrested 28-year-old Nathan Sims of Saint Paul and charged him with two counts of second-degree murder; he was held in the Ramsey County jail. Surveillance footage captured the shooting event but did not show the shooter. A resident witness said there had been no argument beforehand and that Sims had acquired a gun a few days earlier and was seen with it about an hour before the shooting; another person at the house agreed there was no altercation before the shot. Sims reportedly told police he had fired a Colt .44 into the air on a prior night when told his hands would be tested for gunshot residue. Does anyone have information about Cannon’s activities that night or relevant footage from the area?