Inver Grove Heights man charged in connection to downtown Minneapolis shooting
MINNEAPOLIS -- A 26-year-old Inver Grove Heights man is facing multiple charges in connection to the shooting of a woman in downtown Minneapolis over the weekend.
Deandre Lavonne Johnson was charged with one count each of second-degree assault and second-degree riot — both with a dangerous weapon. He was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm.
The Minneapolis Police Department says officers on patrol downtown responded to a report of multiple gunshots fired outside a bar near 1st Avenue North and 4th Street North early Saturday morning.
Officers found a woman who had been shot in the back. Her condition is critical but stable as of Tuesday.
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According to charging documents, two groups of people had been involved in a dispute in the parking lot outside the bar.
Johnson is said to have been seen on surveillance camera temporarily stashing his firearm in a car registered to his mother. He had brief contact with police responding to the distance before he walked north on Hennepin Avenue, away from the area.
A woman driving the car Johnson stashed his gun in is seen following him before parking it on 4th Street. Johnson approached the car and got into the backseat for a short time before walking west, crossing 1st Avenue North.
Johnson is alleged to have then raised a gun and fired repeatedly at a person, or people, just out of the frame of a surveillance camera.
The investigation revealed another shooter had been firing from the area just outside of the frame.
Based on the position of the victim, police say the second unidentified shooter was the one who hit her.
Police arrested Johnson the next night in the same parking lot where the initial disturbance occurred. At the time of his arrest, he was found to be in possession of a loaded handgun.
Johnson is currently on supervised release in connection to a first-degree assault conviction after, in 2016, he shot a juvenile victim in the neck, paralyzing him.
