Saint Paul police have arrested a man for suspicion of murder after he called the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center early Tuesday morning to report that he’d killed his wife.

Dispatchers took the call at about 3:05 a.m. from 46-year-old Johnny Ray Aldridge, who told them he had shot his wife inside their home on the 30 block of Winnipeg Avenue West.

Saint Paul police officers found him outside of the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center at 425 Grove Street. He was taken into custody without incident and brought to the homicide unit for questioning. He was later arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of homicide.

While investigators were taking the suspect into custody, officers went to the man’s home and found his wife, a woman in her 40s, deceased inside the home.

Investigators wrote several warrants that will allow them to gather evidence from the scene, and the police department’s forensic services unit also responded. At this time,  no motive has been determined and investigators are working to determine what happened in the moments before, during and after the woman was killed.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the woman’s exact cause of death and positively identify her. That information, along with any updates in the case, will be released on the police department’s Twitter page, @sppdmn.  

This is the 30th homicide of the year in the city.

Last Edited: September 28, 2021