Mayhem in the neighborhood

Most people don't think much about Arden Hills, the generally affluent suburb that's directly to the east of my town, New Brighton. You especially don't expect a gangland-type slaying:

Josh Polos watched in disbelief Monday morning as the gunman shot the wounded man, already helpless on the ground, in the head. 

Then the shooter turned to Polos and looked him full in the face.

“I thought for sure he’d shoot me,” Polos said. “But thank God, he got in the car and drove away.”

Polos had just stopped to fill up his work vehicle Monday morning at a Holiday gas station in Arden Hills when, from 20 feet away, he saw a sedan pull up to the station and the driver get out and shoot dead his passenger outside the vehicle. Then the driver sped away, he said, running over the victim as he left.

“It was so surreal,” said Polos, a flooring installer who was on his way to a job laying carpet. “You’d think that you’d run but I just stood there, frozen like a deer in headlights.”

No arrests had been made late Monday night, but Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office investigators were interviewing “a person of interest” in connection with the shooting.

I buy gas at this station from time to time; it's about 4 miles north and east of my house. This is a busy area where three major highways converge -- 35W, U.S. 10 and County Highway 96. There has been an enormous amount of road construction on Highway 96 over the past few years, especially in rebuilding the intersection with U.S. 10. From what I understand, the construction headaches will continue into next year, as the Highway 96 bridge over 35W is scheduled for replacement. The folks who run the gas station there have lost a lot of business over the past year or two because of the construction and this incident certainly can't help them.