MINNEAPOLIS — A 20-year-old Savage man is accused of opening fire on a family’s car in Minneapolis, She killed a woman in the car and injured her toddler son as he sat on her lap.
The Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office charged the man with one count of second-degree murder and four counts of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the shooting on the evening of May 19.
The woman died a few days after the shootingwhich also left her 2-year-old son with two gunshot wounds to the face. Her two other children in the car were not injured, and the father of her children, who the suspect also allegedly shot, was also not injured.
The criminal complaint states the shooting happened in an alley on the 2900 block of 18th Avenue South, just west of Pioneers & Soldiers Memorial Cemetery.
The father left to get some tools from his brother when surveillance footage showed a vehicle pulling up behind the family, the complaint said. The suspect then got out, slowly walked toward the family’s car and opened fire.
Video footage shows the father returning to the vehicle and screaming. The suspect then shot him, but missed before fleeing.
Multiple witnesses pointed police toward the suspect, the complaint said. Warrants were executed to access his social media accounts, where investigators found images of him with weapons and messages in which the suspect attempted to “trade firearms 24 hours after the murder.” His phone was also pinged at the scene of the crime.
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Two witnesses later picked out the suspect from a row of photos, and police also obtained a selfie he reportedly took hours before the shooting. Surveillance footage shows him wearing the same shoes as the shooter.
According to the complaint, the suspect has a “history of violence” and is on probation for aggravated robbery in Scott County. He also faces charges of home invasion and attempted murder in Iowa.
The law firm requested $2 million bail because prosecutors believe the suspect is a flight risk, as messages obtained by investigators “bragged about fleeing to Somalia” in connection with the Iowa charges.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said his team has been using “interpreters in recent months to gather key information from witnesses” to solve the case.
“The death of a mother who was holding her child when they were both shot is particularly disturbing. This senseless crime had a profound impact on the family, the community, the responding officers and the detectives,” O’Hara said.
If found guilty on all charges, he faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. The law firm is pushing for a harsher sentence because children were involved.
NOTE: The original air date of the video attached to this article is May 20, 2024.
