A 46-year-old St. Anthony man is facing a first-degree aggravated robbery charge after Saint Paul police say he pulled a pistol and struck a deaf, nonverbal man before taking off with his brown Schwinn bicycle near the East Side YMCA early Monday. Officers found the man, identified as David Earl Peguse, walking west on Phalen Boulevard with a woman and that same bicycle shortly after the victim flagged down police.
According to MN Crime, Saint Paul officers were flagged down by the victim around 12:05 a.m. Monday near Minnehaha Avenue East and Preble Street. The victim, who communicated with officers by writing, described the suspect as a Black male about 5 feet 8 inches tall with short or no hair, wearing a green shirt and black pants. Officers noted a fresh, swollen purple welt behind the victim's left ear, which he indicated came from being struck during the confrontation.
The victim told police he had been walking his brown Schwinn bicycle near the YMCA at 875 Arcade Street, in the heart of Saint Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood along Phalen Boulevard and Minnehaha Avenue East. He said a Black man and a Native woman had confronted him roughly 30 minutes earlier, accusing him of stealing the man's belongings — an accusation the victim denied. He said the male suspect pulled a pistol from his waistband, struck him on the left side of the ear, and then tried to take his bicycle.
Peguse's Version: A Dispute Over a Missing Tent
Officers matched the description to Peguse, who was found walking with a woman and the bicycle in question. Per the same account, Peguse told police he and others had discovered their tent and belongings missing about six months earlier, and that on the night of the confrontation, he found the victim and another man camped under the Arcade Street bridge. He said he confronted the victim, accusing him of taking his property.
Peguse said he gave the victim 30 minutes to return the missing belongings, and that when he came back from a store his tent was missing again. He told officers he then found the victim in his tent on the other side of Phalen Boulevard and took the tent back. Peguse said both men were carrying folding pocketknives, along with a milk crate and food, and that the victim left his bicycle behind as collateral while retrieving Peguse's belongings.
The woman who was with Peguse that night told police she had been in a romantic relationship with him for five months. She said Peguse did not have a bicycle when she first encountered him earlier in the evening, but that he later returned with one following an interaction with a man near the Arcade Street bridge. She denied being in the YMCA parking lot during the confrontation.
BB Gun, Knife and Methamphetamine Found in Search
Peguse admitted to pulling out a BB gun during the encounter but said he did so in self-defense and insisted the weapon did not work. He denied hitting the victim. A search of Peguse turned up a .177 caliber Daisy BB gun in a black zippered bag, an orange and black fixed-blade knife in his pants pocket, and a knife in a separate pocket as well.
Officers also reported finding a small ziplock baggie containing a white crystal substance in Peguse's left pants pocket, along with another baggie in his backpack. Peguse admitted the substance was methamphetamine and said it weighed less than a gram. Under Minnesota Statute § 152.025, possessing less than 0.25 grams of methamphetamine is typically a gross misdemeanor for a first offense, though larger quantities or repeat offenses can elevate fifth-degree controlled substance charges to a felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Why Prosecutors Chose the Aggravated Robbery Charge
According to the complaint, Peguse faces a charge of first-degree aggravated robbery, which under Minnesota law carries up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors say Peguse took the victim's bicycle while armed with a pistol and a knife. Minnesota courts have long classified air-powered BB guns as dangerous weapons capable of causing great bodily harm, which allows prosecutors to pursue aggravated robbery charges regardless of whether the BB gun was operable, according to a 2016 Anoka County Attorney training update on the statute.
Minnesota law distinguishes simple robbery, punishable by up to 10 years, from first- and second-degree aggravated robbery, which carry maximum sentences of 20 and 15 years respectively, based on whether a suspect is armed with a dangerous weapon or inflicts bodily harm. Peguse was scheduled to appear in Ramsey County court Tuesday. Felony cases originating in Saint Paul are prosecuted by the Ramsey County Attorney's Office and adjudicated in Minnesota's Second Judicial District at the Ramsey County Courthouse downtown, per Justia Law's records of Minnesota appellate proceedings.
Those same court records show Peguse has a prior felony history in Ramsey County. In January 2021, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction for second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, stemming from an incident in which he chased a man across a public park in a vehicle during a dispute involving a former romantic partner's companion.
A Broader Pattern on Saint Paul's East Side
The confrontation unfolded in an area that serves as a key commercial and transit corridor for Saint Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood, near major rail lines and bus routes. Saint Paul's District Council 2, which covers the Greater East Side, publishes bi-weekly neighborhood incident summaries through the city's Open Information Portal, giving residents a running account of local crime trends.
Citywide, Saint Paul police recorded 362 robberies and 1,290 aggravated assaults in 2024, part of 1,878 total violent crimes — a 1% year-over-year decline, according to data compiled by OpenCrime. Multi-year police call data reviewed by KSTP-TV found that violent crime categories including robberies, carjackings, and aggravated assaults trended consistently downward across Saint Paul between 2022 and 2024, even as individual weapon-involved confrontations like this one continue to draw scrutiny.
Statewide, the picture looks different. Firearms were involved in 74.7% of violent crime incidents across Minnesota in 2024, up from 69.6% the year before, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Uniform Crime Report released in October 2025. That upward trend in weapon involvement underscores why cases involving BB guns and knives, even non-functional ones, continue to draw the state's toughest robbery statutes.
