MINNEAPOLIS – People who knew each other were in the car when suspects with the gang shot each in the head before they escaped, according to newly sealed criminal charges in this week’s shooting in Minneapolis.
Three victims died at the scene early Tuesday. Another succumbed to his wounds Thursday. According to the criminal charges, one remains hospitalized after being shot in the face, but was able to identify the shooter by police.
And investigators believe the fifth person was killed hours later in retaliation. The suspect in the first shooting was arrested Thursday and charged with murder.
Police say all the victims were Native Americans and the shooting was gang-related.
What do you know about the victims?
The first shooting occurred Tuesday just before midnight in vehicles parked in a diverse residential and commercial industry neighbourhood in Phillips, South Minneapolis. The county prosecutor’s office on Friday said the three people who died at the scene were 27-year-old Evan Ramon Denny of St. Paul. Joseph Douglas Goodwin, 17, of Minneapolis. 20-year-old Merrell Joan White from Red Lake. The two were photographed multiple times.
A 20-year-old woman was shot in the face and was hospitalized in danger, the complaint said. She said the shooter was in the back seat when he fired fire at him and everyone else in the vehicle before he escaped on foot.
The 28-year-old man was hospitalized in serious condition, but died shortly after the suspect was arrested Thursday, police said. The victim’s name was still withheld on Friday.
The second photo the next day
About 13 hours later, a few blocks away, a man was killed near an apartment building that houses the Minneapolis office of Red Lake Nation, one of the state’s largest tribes. Medical inspectors identified him as Tiago Antonio Gilbert, 34, of Minneapolis on Friday. He died of multiple gunshot wounds.
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The Minneapolis Police Chief said Thursday that the second shooting was “fully likely” to be the first revenge. However, a police spokesman, Sgt. Garrett Parten said investigators are still working to determine if there is a link.
Police have released few other details about the murder.
Police say the shooting was gang-related
The complaints against James Duane Ortley, 34, of Minneapolis, alleges he and his family members are linked to a gang known as a native mob who operates south of the city and elsewhere in Minnesota.
The gang was a subject of a multi-year federal investigation more than a decade ago, convicting 28 people. The suspect at the time was sentenced to 43 years in prison in 2014.
He is currently suspected of being charged with murder.
The former US s service said the local fugitive task force and the FBI SWAT team arrested Autry on Thursday afternoon. He was charged with two-degree murder a day ago and was a felon in possession of a firearm.
Altley has been convicted of felony attacks on his records since 2021, and the complaint said he bans him from possessing guns and ammunition. He completed his probation in 2023, according to court records. When police interviewed him in another murder investigation in 2023, he said he had admitted that his street name was “Baby James.”
Autry remained in jail on Friday, and court records did not list any attorneys who could comment on his behalf. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday. Hennepin County Chief Defendant Michael Berger said he will likely not learn whether his office will represent Ortley until Monday. The message left some potential relatives of Ortley.
What was your relationship with the suspect’s victim?
According to a complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court, the surviving victims told police they went under the names “Baby J,” “Little J,” “Little James,” and “Baby J,” and “Little James.”
A relative of one of the victims told police that all of the victims were together at the residence of a family friend in Minneapolis, but they set out at about 9:30pm with a plan to pick up “Baby J,” known to be the victim’s “close family friend.” The family identified “Baby J” as the accused.
Sources from other law enforcement agencies told investigators that Ortley was an “associate” of multiple victims, the complaint said.
The surveillance video matched the survivor’s accounts, the complaint said. It shows that Ortley’s explanation leaves the vehicle and one person is one to escape before police arrive.
The motivation is still unknown
The complaint gave no details on what prompted the shooting.
“This is a bittersweet day,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement Friday. “This arrest represents meaningful progress towards justice, but those progress will be overshadowed by the heartbreaking loss of another life. Our thoughts remain in the families of the victims, their loved ones, and the community that continues to grieve.”
