Teenager Charged With Murder In North Minneapolis Gas Station Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minneapolis teenager is facing murder charges for allegedly shooting and killing a man at a north side gas station last summer.
Khalil Shabazz, 17, is charged in Hennepin County with second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 9 shooting. Earlier this week, a judge ordered that he stand trial as an adult.
According to a criminal complaint, Shabazz was identified as the gunman who shot a man in the middle of the day at the Amstar gas station on the 1600 block of West Broadway Avenue.
Investigators say the victim, 36-year-old Telly Blair of Minneapolis, was sitting in the driver's seat of a car when he was shot multiple times in the chest. He was pronounced at a hospital less than an hour later.
Weeks after the shooting, a confidential informant told Minneapolis police that he heard a teen say that he shot Blair. The informant also said that the suspect lived near the Amstar gas station.
Based on this information, investigators determined Shabazz was the shooter, as several police reports described him as living in the area, and images of him match those seen on gas station surveillance, the complaint states.
Additionally, a Brooklyn Park police officer told Minneapolis investigators that another confidential informant told him that someone was trying to sell a handgun that was used in the shooting. The informant told police that they heard the seller say he walked up to a man, asked him where he was from and shot him.
Police arrested Shabazz at his home, which both confidential informants knew. Investigators found shoes and jeans in Shabazz's bedroom that appeared to have been worn in the gas station surveillance video. However, one of Shabazz's brothers told police that he has also worn the shoes.
According to the complaint, Shabazz's relatives told police that a day before the gas station shooting Shabazz was with a close family friend when the friend was shot.
