The employees were fixtures at Davern Park long before prosecutors said a tenant’s parking dispute ended in gunfire.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Before flowers and candles covered the ground outside Davern Park Apartments, Dena Silcox welcomed residents, Adam “A.J.” Wilwerding fixed their problems and Nansi Fuentes Zambrano helped tenants make themselves understood. All three were killed July 20 inside the office where they worked.
Their deaths turned a familiar neighborhood workplace into a crime scene and, one day later, a gathering place for about 100 mourners. Family members, neighbors and residents returned to the Highland Park complex for a vigil with candles, flowers and hymns. Bagpipes carried the notes of “Amazing Grace” along the sidewalk. The three people being remembered were Silcox, 56, of St. Paul; Wilwerding, 43, of Oakdale; and Fuentes Zambrano, 25, of Inver Grove Heights. Prosecutors allege tenant Tsegaab Ademassu Binessu, 30, killed them after a dispute involving his recently renewed garage-parking agreement.
Silcox had worked at the property for nearly a decade and was one of the people residents expected to see when they entered the leasing office. Her father, Robert Silcox, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the position had been her dream job because she enjoyed working with people. He also remembered her as a skilled piano player and a devoted mother of four. Residents described someone whose smile and willingness to talk made the office feel less transactional. For Silcox’s family and longtime partner, the public facts of the criminal case existed alongside much more personal memories of a woman whose life revolved around family, music and work.
Wilwerding was known around the property as A.J. and occupied a different but equally visible role. He handled maintenance, responding when something broke and often remaining to talk with the residents he helped. People who knew him told the Star Tribune that he approached his work with purpose and rarely treated a repair as too minor for his attention. His sister described him as a protective brother and a deeply loved member of the family. Friends said his relationships with the other employees had grown beyond ordinary workplace ties after years of working together around the same apartment buildings.
Fuentes Zambrano, the youngest of the three, worked as a leasing agent. Her role included helping prospective and current tenants with paperwork, questions and the process of settling into their homes. Spanish-speaking residents also relied on her to interpret conversations with management. Her sister-in-law described her as a daughter, sister, aunt, friend and partner who gave much of her time to the people around her. Residents remembered that same instinct at work: when someone needed help explaining a problem or navigating the office, Fuentes Zambrano was often the person who stepped in.
The details of what happened inside that office emerged in a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court. Police were called shortly after 4 p.m. July 20 after multiple people reported screams and gunshots at the complex on the 1500 block of St. Paul Avenue. Responding officers found Silcox and Wilwerding in the front portion of the leasing office and Fuentes Zambrano toward the back. Investigators recovered 21 spent 9 mm casings. Video from the office, prosecutors say, recorded significant portions of the attack and became one of the main pieces of evidence described in the charges.
Investigators say the confrontation was preceded by a call from Binessu about his parking space. He had sold his car and wanted to cancel a garage contract that cost $65 a month, according to statements described in the complaint. An employee told investigators that Binessu had recently renewed the agreement and was informed that it could not be canceled as he requested. Prosecutors say he responded that he would come to the office and discuss the issue in person, even after being told the answer would not change. The charging document does not say the workers knew the encounter would become violent.
According to prosecutors, surveillance video showed Binessu talking with Wilwerding before drawing a handgun. Wilwerding raised his hands before he was shot multiple times, the complaint says. Binessu then allegedly shot Silcox before walking out of the camera’s view and down a hallway. Investigators said the recording captured a woman screaming and additional gunshots. Fuentes Zambrano was found in the rear area of the office, and police believe she had been trying to escape through a window. Authorities have described the parking disagreement as the immediate dispute preceding the shootings, but the criminal charges remain allegations that must be tested in court.
A separate account came from Binessu’s longtime roommate. The roommate told police that Binessu had recently left his truck-driving job and had talked about joining the U.S. Navy. He said Binessu planned to sell his car and address the parking contract with apartment management. After the killings, according to the complaint, Binessu told the roommate that he had argued with management and had killed three people. The roommate contacted law enforcement. Binessu reportedly said at one point that he intended to walk to a police station, but police did not take him into custody in St. Paul.
Instead, authorities located Binessu later in Virginia, Minnesota, about 200 miles north of the apartment complex. He was driving Fuentes Zambrano’s Chrysler, police said. Investigators reported finding identification documents, an empty handgun magazine, his state permit to carry a firearm and what appeared to be newly purchased camping equipment in the vehicle. At the crime scene, Fuentes Zambrano’s boyfriend had already told police that her car was missing. The recovery of the vehicle later that night linked the northern Minnesota arrest to one of the people killed in the leasing office.
Binessu spoke with investigators after his arrest about other stresses in his life, according to charging documents. He discussed problems involving immigration and his unsuccessful efforts over several years to bring his former wife and children from Ethiopia to the United States. He also expressed anger at what he characterized as the American system. Those statements were included in reporting about the complaint, but they do not by themselves establish why the three workers were killed. When investigators turned their questioning to what occurred inside the leasing office, the complaint says Binessu asked for an attorney.
The next stage shifted from homicide investigation to criminal court. Ramsey County prosecutors charged Binessu with three counts of second-degree intentional murder. He appeared before a judge July 22, received a public defender and was held on $10 million bail. Under the charges filed, prosecutors do not have to prove that the killings were planned in advance in order to obtain a second-degree intentional-murder conviction, but they must prove the required elements of each count beyond a reasonable doubt. Binessu is accused, not convicted, and the public evidence described by investigators has not yet been tested through a completed trial.
For residents of Davern Park, however, the legal file is only one record of what was lost. The three workers had spent their days doing the ordinary tasks that make an apartment complex function: answering a question, explaining paperwork, fixing something that failed, helping a tenant communicate. After their deaths, those routine interactions became the memories neighbors repeated most often. The latest reliable public material reviewed for this article did not establish a final resolution of the murder case. The criminal proceeding remains pending, while the memorial outside the leasing office marked the place where residents had once gone to find Silcox, Wilwerding and Fuentes Zambrano at work.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.