Update: The gun was loaded, police say.

A St. Paul in-home day care won’t be allowed to operate while a criminal investigation is underway into a gun found in a crib, officials said Monday.

Officers searched the North End home Friday and also discovered marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to a police report. They arrested three people and cited two others about 8:30 p.m.

On Friday, police said there were several children in the home at the time.

A police spokesman said Monday that he didn’t have information about the presence of children or whether the gun in the crib was loaded.

Amy Michelle Toby, 37, was arrested on suspicion of negligent storage of a firearm and child endangerment. She is listed as living at the home in the 1100 block of Abell Street and is licensed to provide family child care there.

Ramsey County requested a temporary immediate suspension of Toby’s license and the Minnesota Department of Human Services granted it, said John Siqveland, Ramsey County spokesman. County agencies investigate maltreatment reports in family child care programs, and the county is responsible for informing DHS of serious incidents and for recommending licensing sanctions, according to the state agency.

The day care may have been open Monday as the suspension order was being processed, but now Toby won’t be allowed to offer day care pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, Siqveland said.

Toby has not been charged and was released from the Ramsey County Jail on Saturday pending further investigation. She hung up on a reporter who contacted her Monday.

Police arrested Edward Earl Townsend, 33, at the home Friday. He was booked into the jail on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a felon and on a felony warrant from Wisconsin for a parole violation, the police report said.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office on Monday charged Townsend with being a fugitive from justice. Townsend was convicted of armed robbery and possession of a firearm in Wisconsin in 2005, sentenced to 14 years in prison and paroled in December, according to the criminal complaint. He violated parole in June by absconding, the complaint said. Wisconsin authorities have approved extradition.

On Friday, police also arrested a 19-year-old man on misdemeanor warrants, the police report said. Investigators cited a man for visiting a disorderly house and cited a juvenile male for possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Toby has had a day care license since 2000, Siqveland said. She moved to a new location about five months ago, and county staff inspected and approved the site before the move, he said.

There have been no previous licensing sanctions against Toby, according to DHS.

Ramsey County staff is reviewing records related to the day care and, as of Monday, had identified only one past complaint related to a 2006 report, Siqveland said.

Prosecutors charged Toby with malicious punishment of a child in 2006 after a 4-year-old boy who attended her day care reported that she had choked him, according to a criminal complaint. Toby told the boy’s mother that he got in a fight with another child and was scratched on the neck. A physician’s assistant found what “appeared to be imprints of fingers … consistent with choking” on his neck, the complaint said.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office later dismissed the charge, saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution.

No licensing action was taken in the case, Siqveland said.

DHS Inspector General Jerry Kerber said in a statement Monday about the current matter: “The recent media reports regarding a police investigation involving this family child care provider give us all multiple reasons to be concerned about this case.”

Tad Vezner contributed to this report.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.