A post-funeral gathering at a Saint Paul home turned violent last month when an argument on the back deck escalated into gunfire, leaving one man shot in the leg and foot and a 19-year-old facing attempted murder charges. Isa Uthman Abdur Razzaq now faces attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon counts stemming from the July 24 shooting, according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court.
The victim had come to Saint Paul for a funeral and was at the home for the reception that followed when the confrontation began, according to MN Crime. Razzaq allegedly confronted the victim on the back deck while holding a wooden pole before family members stepped in and separated the two men. The outlet reports that Razzaq then dropped the pole, pulled a handgun from his waistband, and pointed it at the victim's center mass.
According to the charges, Razzaq fired two rounds that missed the victim before firing two additional rounds that struck him, hitting his lower right leg and foot. A family member later told investigators the victim had been shot during the argument by “someone's kid,” per the account relayed to police. Razzaq then left the scene in a white Cadillac, the report states.
Victim Initially Left Hospital, Then Came Forward Weeks Later
Officers responded to Regions Hospital at about 6:40 p.m. on July 24, after the victim arrived there with gunshot wounds. The victim initially refused to answer questions about the shooting and left the hospital against medical advice that same day, attributing his early noncooperation to his mental state following the family death and fear of retaliation. Regions Hospital, where the victim was treated, operates as an American College of Surgeons-verified Level I trauma center serving the East Twin Cities, according to HealthPartners.
Weeks later, on August 18, the victim contacted investigators and agreed to discuss the shooting, and Razzaq was arrested the same day. That gap between the initial refusal and the eventual outreach reflects a pattern Saint Paul investigators have come to expect. The city's Non-Fatal Shooting Unit, formed in January 2024, was built specifically to keep working cases even when victims initially decline to cooperate, as Hoodline previously reported, leaning on digital evidence, doorbell cameras, and forensic analysis to build cases despite grief, trauma, or fear of retaliation among victims.
Search Warrant Turns Up Casings, Blood Trail, and a Handgun
When officers executed a search warrant at the home, they found spent 9mm casings along with a trail of blood leading inside, and additional blood evidence was discovered elsewhere in the house. Officers also recovered a 9mm handgun from Razzaq's bedroom, described in charging documents as camouflage with a green or tan slide, or alternately as having a tan lower and silver slide. Razzaq was later arrested near another Saint Paul address, per the same account.
Razzaq reportedly denied being at the location of the shooting and denied knowing about the family death that had brought the victim to town. The recovered handgun carries particular legal weight because Razzaq was already prohibited from possessing firearms at the time of the shooting. He was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court on April 20, 2026, for threats of violence, stemming from an incident in which he allegedly pointed an AR-15 pistol at a man and a woman during a parking dispute and pointed a gun at a woman's head inside his white Cadillac.
Prior Conviction Triggered Lifetime Firearm Ban
Under Minnesota Statutes §624.713 and §609.165, anyone convicted of a violent crime or a felony-level threat of violence faces a lifetime prohibition on possessing firearms or ammunition, with unlawful possession punishable by up to 15 years in prison, according to Keil Defense. That means Razzaq's April conviction had already rendered him an ineligible possessor months before the alleged July shooting, making the handgun found in his bedroom a central piece of the case against him.
The attempted second-degree murder charge itself carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, since Minnesota's criminal-attempt statute limits punishment for an attempt to no more than half the maximum penalty for the completed offense, which for intentional second-degree murder under state law runs up to 40 years. The secondary second-degree assault charge, involving a dangerous weapon, is punishable by up to seven years and a $14,000 fine, a term that can rise to 10 years if substantial bodily harm resulted, according to the Minnesota Revisor's Office. Razzaq was scheduled to appear in Ramsey County court on Thursday.
Case Fits Into Saint Paul's Uneven 2026 Violence Trends
Felony cases like this one are heard in the Second Judicial District at the Ramsey County Courthouse in downtown Saint Paul, with prosecutions brought by the Ramsey County Attorney's Office. Razzaq, like all defendants, retains the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty, and indigent defendants in Ramsey County are entitled to representation through the Second Judicial District Public Defender's Office.
The shooting arrives amid a mixed picture for violence in Saint Paul this year. Non-fatal shootings have continued a multi-year decline, with 38 people shot citywide as of early August 2026 compared to 55 during the same period in 2025 and 108 in 2022, Hoodline has reported. Homicides, however, have ticked upward, with 13 recorded through mid-August 2026 compared to seven by the same point in 2025 — a year that ultimately saw a historic low of 15 homicides citywide, per Hoodline's earlier coverage of the city's 13th homicide of 2026.
