On the evening of December 7, 2000, 43-year-old Vickie Mollenhoff was working as a cashier at the Minni-Market on Saint Paul’s East Side when she was shot and killed during an attempted robbery. Three men — Raymond Waddell, Anthony Williams, and Jerry Carroll — had attempted to sell purported methamphetamine, then decided to rob the store. Waddell, carrying a gun concealed in the pocket of a light-colored hooded sweatshirt, entered with Williams, picked up candy and approached the register. When Mollenhoff could not open the cash drawer, Waddell shot her in the face. The market owner, Daniel Su, was present; another customer hid in the restroom and called the Saint Paul Police Department as the shooting occurred, later providing a description to officers.

Surveillance video and the witness account helped shape the early dispatch descriptions of two Black male suspects and a dark station wagon. About two and a half hours later, an officer stopped a dark station wagon in Frogtown that matched the description; a large hooded sweatshirt like the shooter’s was found inside. Raymond Waddell was arrested and later convicted of first-degree murder in Mollenhoff’s death. Does anyone have memories of the Minni-Market or the area that night that could add context to what happened?