A 40-year-old man was robbed and assaulted by three individuals in downtown St. Paul earlier this week, authorities say.
The man was near Fifth and Cedar streets when the three approached him just before midnight, according to criminal charges.
The three had been drinking and asked the man about getting high, according to the charges.
When the man told them he wasn’t interested, one of the assailants — Gerald Dean Burts, 31 — pulled out a knife and took his backpack, the charges say.
Then the group started to assault him, knocking him to the ground and punching and kicking him. At some point, the man was able to wrestle the knife away from Burts, according to the charges. He got up and went toward a nearby emergency button on a light-rail platform and called for help.
The incident reportedly was caught on surveillance video.
Police arrived and found the man bleeding from the head with cuts to both his knees. They found Burts in the area carrying the man’s wallet and arrested him.
James Dennis Wilson, 37, and De-Andre Dante Smith, 35, were arrested after being identified in the video, according to criminal complaints.
The men were all charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery.
Burts has six prior felony convictions, and was recently given a lighter sentence then what is recommended under state sentencing guidelines by a Ramsey County judge for failing to register as a predatory offender, authorities say.
Wilson and Smith have two prior felony convictions.
The men were expected to make their first appearance on Wednesday morning. No attorney was listed for them yet in court records.