A 33-year-old Saint Paul man is facing a felony charge after prosecutors say he and another man punched and kicked a bus rider at the Sun Ray Transit Center, then rifled through his pockets for cash. Dwayne Shequille Anderson was charged in Ramsey County District Court with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery, in a case that allegedly began with a small cash handout and ended with the victim bleeding on the floor.
The complaint, filed Nov. 9, accuses Anderson of attacking the victim on or about Nov. 7, according to mn crime. Metro Transit officers responded to a reported assault at the transit center that night and, per the complaint, found the victim on the ground with swelling and bleeding around his left eye and nose. The victim needed help standing and was taken to Regions Hospital.
How the Encounter Allegedly Unfolded
Surveillance video cited in the complaint shows the victim sitting inside the transit center around 7:30 p.m., with Anderson and two women arriving roughly ten minutes later. The footage reportedly shows the group moving in and out of the building over the next hour. The victim later told police that two women asked him for money while he waited for his bus, and he gave one of them $5.
According to the complaint's account, the victim pulled a bottle of alcohol from his bag around 8:34 p.m., the same time one of the women was given a cup. A short while later, around 8:49 p.m., a woman asked the victim for a dollar and he handed over a bill. One woman at the scene later told officers the victim had made sexual advances toward her and that Anderson defended her — a detail that surfaces in the complaint alongside the account of what happened next.
Victim Describes Beating, Search for Cash
The victim said two men then yelled at him and began hitting him with closed fists, the same report notes. Anderson allegedly grabbed the victim, took cash from his hand, and pushed him toward a row of chairs, then put a hand around his neck after he fell. A second man joined in, and the two allegedly searched the victim's pockets together.
Anderson punched the victim in the face and held him down, according to the complaint. He allegedly kicked the victim in the face twice. At one point, a woman entering the transit center reportedly said, let's go, he's got nothing else. Anderson then asked where is the money, kicked the victim in the body and face several more times, and told him not to move. The second man also punched the victim in the face twice, the complaint states. The complaint also states that Anderson pulled the victim's cell phone from his jacket and threw it to the ground; the victim believed the men had taken his iPhone.
Arrest Outside the Station
The group left the transit center at about 8:52 p.m., and officers found Anderson and another man nearby. Anderson and the second man did not comply when officers tried to detain them, and Anderson was arrested after officers attempted to take him into custody, per the complaint reviewed by mn crime. He now faces one count of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery, a charge that under Minnesota law carries up to 20 years in prison, a $35,000 fine, or both.
Pattern of Incidents at the Transit Hub
This is not the only violent incident reported at the Sun Ray BRT station. Three women were charged after an alleged group assault involving a knife there on June 3, with Metro Transit Police responding to the stop around 8:46 p.m. after a report that three females assaulted a man and took his belongings, according to Limitless News. A separate case in Saint Paul saw three men charged with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery after allegedly beating an unhoused man outside a gas station and taking just seven one-dollar bills, as Hoodline previously reported; surveillance video in that case reportedly showed one man throwing a punch while two others punched and kicked the victim as he lay on the ground.
Metro Transit's own systemwide numbers show aggravated assault reports falling from 228 in 2023 to 142 in 2025, and a fall 2025 survey found 49% of riders felt safe on trains compared with 33% two years earlier, per MinnPost. The agency says the share of light rail trips with an official safety presence has grown from about 20% a few years ago to nearly 50% now, though it reports data at a systemwide level rather than breaking out individual stations like Sun Ray. Metro Transit's Homeless Action Team also conducted outreach.
Ramsey County, which encompasses Saint Paul, is served by the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, and felony cases like Anderson's are heard in the Second Judicial District at the Ramsey County Courthouse in downtown Saint Paul. Ramsey County Community Corrections operates the Ramsey County Correctional Facility in Maplewood.
