BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A Minneapolis man has been charged with second-degree murder in a fatal shooting during a drug deal gone wrong, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
Giovanni Williams, 23, was identified by police as a suspect on the night of the Dec. 11 shooting but they were not able to locate him until Tuesday morning, when Williams was arrested at a Brooklyn Park residence.
Police were called to the Pump N Munch gas station at 1505 69th Avenue North in Brooklyn Center at around 9:15 p.m. last Wednesday.
When officers arrived they found a 45-year-old man in the passenger seat of a Chevy Blazer with his girlfriend screaming and holding clothing against his head wound, according to the criminal complaint.
Police and paramedics treated the victim but he died at the scene.
The victim's girlfriend told police that a man she knew as "Giovanni" shot her boyfriend, the complaint states.
The woman told police she had arranged with another person to sell an ounce of marijuana for $300, and that the other person put her in contact with Giovanni Williams, who agreed to meet at the gas station, according to the complaint.
The victim's girlfriend drove herself and her boyfriend to the gas station, where a Chrysler 200 pulled into a parking spot next to them, prosecutors said.
Williams got out of the Chrysler 200 and into the back seat of the Chevy Blazer, where he talked to the victim about the marijuana, robbed him and shot him in the head, the complaint states.
Prosecutors said surveillance video and a witness in the Chrysler verify much of the girlfriend's account.
