Man killed by police in Minnesota was being sought in death of his pregnant wife

By The Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A man who was shot and killed by Minnesota police officers was being sought in the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife, authorities said.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man killed as Mychel Allan Stowers, 36. He was shot Saturday in St. Paul. Two officers involved in the shooting are on paid leave during the investigation.

Stowers was being sought in the shooting death of Damara Alexis Kirkland, 35. She was about two months pregnant when she was killed Oct. 19, police said. There were ultrasound photos in the apartment and a letter addressed to Stowers in the mailbox, according to a probable cause statement.

St. Paul officers learned from a tip that Stowers was at a business Saturday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a news release. Stowers left on a bicycle before several squad cars converged to stop him, the agency said.

He pulled out a handgun and pointed it at officers, according to a preliminary investigation by the bureau. The two officers opened fire, killing Stowers. No one else was hurt.

Stowers had been paroled from prison in March on a second-degree murder charge in the 2008 shooting death of a St. Paul man. He was on work release and living at a halfway house, but he had been granted a pass to visit a woman described in the probable cause statement as his ex-wife on the day of the shooting.

Stowers filed for divorce in June, although it doesn’t appear it had been finalized, other court records show.