UPDATE: Police still searching for Mendota Heights shooting suspect; victim identified

A man suspected of fatally shooting a woman while evading police following an armed robbery in Mendota Heights remained at large Saturday evening, police said.

As of 7 p.m. Saturday, police were still seeking 44-year-old Lucifer Vincent Nguyen, who they said is armed and dangerous. Nguyen had not been charged Saturday evening.

Saturday’s incident, which included a police car chase, encompassed an office building, a nursing home and a car abandoned by Nguyen during the chase. It paralyzed a swath of the community with police warning residents and workers to stay inside with locked doors.

“It’s a really, really big crime scene,” Mendota Heights Police Chief Kelly McCarthy said Saturday evening. Police said they suspect Nguyen of the shooting and the attempted robbery.

Nguyen was convicted of DWI in July 2004 and was convicted of theft in November 2011. His most recent court record, a December 2015 speeding conviction, listed his city of residence as New Hope.

The woman’s body was found about 2:30 p.m., at least five hours after the manhunt began. Law enforcement has not identified the woman.

The woman’s body was found at the Mendota Heights Business Center. Police cordoned off the building, and a crime-scene truck from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension could be seen parked in front of one of the building’s doors.

The incident began about 9 a.m. McCarthy said officers received a call of an armed robbery at a residence in the 1600 block of Delaware Avenue. As they were en route to the call, they spotted a vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s.

During the pursuit, the suspect’s vehicle turned down a dead-end street. McCarthy said Nguyen abandoned the vehicle in a swamp and fled on foot, eventually seeking refuge in White Pine Senior Living, a senior living facility in the vicinity of Dodd Road and Minnesota 110.

The senior center was cleared of 45 or so residents and their visitors and caretakers about 2:45 p.m. It took law enforcement officers hours to clear the building because many living in the senior center “are not ambulatory,” McCarthy said. No one at the senior center was injured.

Nguyen apparently left the senior center and entered the nearby Mendota Heights Business Center. The office building is unlocked during business hours on Saturdays and usually doesn’t have security personnel, according to individuals at the scene who said they worked inside.

Greg Boltz owns Boltz’s Family Martial Arts Academy, located next to Mendota Heights Executive Center and not far from White Pine Senior Living. He said his wife was teaching a class about 9:15 a.m. when she noticed commotion from law enforcement officials swarming the scene.

“She went outside and said ‘What’s going on? Is it safe?’ ” he said. “They said, ‘No, it’s not safe.’ ”

The Boltzes live nearby, and Greg Boltz said once police ordered residents to stay inside, the neighborhood became like a ghost town.

“It was the eeriest thing in the world,” he said. “Normally on a Saturday there are people outside doing yard work and kids riding their bikes. Today, there was just nothing.”

SWAT teams from the Dakota and Washington county sheriff’s departments and officers from the Minnesota State Patrol and surrounding community police departments — including Lakeville, West St. Paul and South St. Paul — assisted.

“We are asking people in the area to stay inside, lock their doors and call 911 if they see anything suspicious,” McCarthy added.