Gunfire on Friday morning claimed the lives of a St. Paul father and the two teenage daughters he doted on.

The shooting at a Payne-Phalen apartment also left the girls’ mother clinging to life.

Immediately after the shooting, authorities began a frantic search for one of the victims’ daughter — an 18-month-old girl. Police found the toddler safe and arrested the man who was hiding with her in a shed not far from the apartment.

Police found another suspect in the case, Jeffrey Jamaile Taylor, 20, the father of the toddler, dead of a gunshot wound. He was discovered as officers canvassed a wooded area southeast of the original shooting scene. Police are investigating the circumstances of his death.

The man who was found in the shed, 19-year-old Jeffery Arkis Taylor, was booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping, and aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder.

Jeffrey J. Taylor and 19-year-old Maria Alana McIntosh, who was killed in the shooting, were the parents of the 18-month-old girl. Jeffrey J. Taylor and Jeffery A. Taylor were half-brothers.

The other homicide victims were Maria’s father, 47-year-old Wade Gordon McIntosh, and her 17-year-old sister, Olivia Felis McIntosh.

“My Uncle Wade … my cousins … they were all good, beautiful people, inside and out,” said relative Louis Hernandez. “We are very blessed that the baby is OK.”

REPORT OF SHOTS FIRED LEADS TO FOUR FATALITIES

Just before 1 a.m. Friday, police were called to a report of shots fired at an apartment building in the 1600 block of English Street.

Diane Hagler, who lives on the third floor of the three-level apartment building, said she was awakened by two gunshots and soon heard a woman screaming outside.

She looked through her sliding glass door and saw a cousin of Anita McIntosh — the woman who remains critically injured — in front of the building screaming, “He killed my whole family! He killed my whole family!”

The cousin lives in a second-floor unit next door to where Anita McIntosh and her daughters have lived for several years, Hagler said. Anita McIntosh is a caretaker for the building and “has a heart of gold,” Hagler said.

On Friday night, two uniformed St. Paul police officers stood outside both units. A bouquet of flowers, left by a friend of the McIntosh family, leaned against the door of the unit where three of the victims were shot.

Paramedics pronounced Wade McIntosh and his daughters dead at the building, which is at the corner of Larpenteur Avenue and a few blocks from Lake Phalen. Anita McIntosh, who is Wade’s ex-wife, was taken to Regions Hospital.

“We are all praying for my auntie right now,” Hernandez said Friday, adding that his family is feeling a lot of anger about what happened. Related Articles Search continues for third occupant of plane that crashed on Sunday

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‘IT’S VERY SCARY’

After police heard about the missing toddler, they set up a perimeter and began the process to initiate an Amber Alert, but a team of officers and a police dog located the girl about two hours later, police said.

“Got the baby,” an officer could be heard saying in a dispatch recorded by Police Clips. “We got the baby!”

Police said in the recording that paramedics were needed for the child to treat hypothermia. She was taken to a hospital and was uninjured, police said.

The shed where they found the toddler and the other suspect is in the back yard of a residence that Terry Yang rents. Yang said she woke up early Friday to find police behind the home. A police dog was barking and officers could be seen using flashlights to scan the area.

Officers were ordering a man to come out from the shed, she said. He did and they took him into custody. Yang said she never saw the little girl.

Yang thought the man could be a drunk driving suspect who ran from police, but later she found out he was arrested after the fatal shootings.

“It’s very scary,” said Yang, who was in her home with her five children.

COMMUNITY MOURNS

Wade McIntosh was remembered Friday as “a stand-up guy … a jack-of-all trades,” said Greg Verdeja.

Verdeja met McIntosh, who grew up on St. Paul’s West Side, when they were sixth-graders at Cherokee Heights Elementary School. They went to Humboldt High School together, before McIntosh headed to Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.

Maria and Olivia were McIntosh’s only children, Verdeja said. The teens were “kind, beautiful young girls and they didn’t deserve this, obviously,” he said.

McIntosh’s Facebook page had numerous photos of him with his daughters.

In a February post accompanying a photo of the two, he wrote: “My Daughter’s Olivia and Maria. Olivia is my mini me. Little fire cracker, yet beautiful very creative out going … Has smile and laugh … that could light the world up! Maria, so full of Grace and gentle beauty … a great Mother and Friend to her daughter Cheyenne.”

Maria McIntosh graduated from AGAPE High School in St. Paul in 2016, according to a spokesman for the St. Paul school district. The school offers programming for teens who are pregnant or parenting.

She transferred to the high school in the 2014-15 school year after previously attending school in Roseville, according to a spokesman for that district.

Olivia McIntosh attended the Inver Grove Heights school district until seventh grade and spent one semester in Roseville. She was a student at Face to Face Academy at the time of her death.

“The entire Face to Face Academy community is devastated and our hearts are heavy,” said Darius Husain, the school’s executive director, in a statement. “Every once and awhile, you run into a student who leaves a lasting impression on everyone they meet. Olivia was one of those rare individuals. Her spirit was strong, her enthusiasm contagious, and her loss will leave a void not likely to be filled. In days and weeks ahead, our small, close knit school will attempt to grapple with our grief and celebrate a life full of meaning and purpose.”

The Roseville school district also expressed sympathy to the teens’ families. Related Articles St. Paul council approves mayor’s basic-income project for poor families

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SUSPECT IS JAILED

Jeffery A. Taylor remained jailed on Friday. Police said they will continue to investigate Taylor’s involvement and plan to present a case to the Ramsey County attorney’s office Monday to consider charges against him.

Minnesota criminal records show each of the half-brothers was convicted of disorderly conduct in recent years, but not a history of more serious convictions. A relative reached in Missouri on Friday declined to comment.

Investigators ask anyone with information about what happened to call 651-266-5650.

Nick Ferraro contributed to this report.