Charges expected today in north Minneapolis slayings

While Richard Lee Christianson and Michael Trinity were painting window screen frames at their home in north Minneapolis on Tuesday, police say Dontaro Riddley and two juveniles were planning a violent armed robbery.

That night, Christianson, 35, and Trinity, 43, were robbed, forced to their knees and shot execution-style in the head.

Police believe Riddley, 19, was the shooter; the other suspects are a 15-year-old boy and his 17-year-old girlfriend.

City and police officials called the slayings cold-blooded and despicable, saying the victims were targeted at random as they walked the four blocks home from Waldo's Bar, a neighborhood hangout, about 11 p.m.

Charges are expected to be filed against the suspects today.

On Thursday, stunned friends and family members gathered near the house Christianson and Trinity shared with Christianson's cousin Mike Wiener.

"Who does that to people?" Christianson's brother David Wiener asked, referring to the execution-style nature of the killings.

Mike Wiener said he heard news reports about the shooting Wednesday morning and called police when he saw that Christianson and Trinity weren't home.

"I was shocked," he said. "Rich and I grew up together. He was like my brother."

'It hurts me,' grandma says

Josephine Riddley said she hadn't seen her grandson, Dontaro, for about a month.

"You never know what your children will do," she said. "I wouldn't think he would do something like that. I am awfully sorry for them," she said of the victims' families. "It is hard to believe he could do something like that. It hurts me."

Quindra Riddley, 18, said her brother had been staying with an aunt in the 4800 block of Aldrich Av. N. -- three blocks from Waldo's and just over a block from the victims' home.

She said her brother had dropped out of high school but had returned to an alternative school and had been trying to get a job as a telemarketer.

"I never thought he would be involved in something like that," she said.

The victims didn't know the suspects and weren't involved in any illegal activity, police Capt. Mike Martin has said. The victims willingly gave up their wallets, police said. Police found a gun that they are testing to determine if it was used to kill the men, Martin said.

There might well have been a third dead man Tuesday night near Waldo's, but, according to police, the suspects' gun jammed during another robbery about an hour earlier.

Armed robberies

Violent crime, including robbery, has been decreasing this year in Minneapolis and in the Fourth Precinct, which covers north Minneapolis.

But in recent weeks there have been several incidents in which armed robberies have turned into near-shootings, Lt. Mike Fossum said. Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspects in Tuesday's homicides are connected to other incidents.

In one case, a man fired a gun at a convenience store clerk in north Minneapolis even though the clerk was complying with the robber's orders, Fossum said. The robber was just shooting "for the hell of it," he said.

There also have been at least six people robbed at gunpoint after they left bars along NE. 4th Street, Fossum said. In several incidents the robbers pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed, he said. During one incident, the victim believed the gun was fake and started wrestling with the robber.

A kind and generous soul

Christianson grew up in Circle Pines and dropped out of Centennial High School but later earned a GED, Mike Wiener said. Christianson had been painting and doing other odd jobs. He had lived with Wiener on and off for the past three or four years and got his mail there.

Wiener said his boyhood home was across a field from their grandfather's home and the two often played together and went to the family cabin in Grand Rapids, Minn.

Linda Geist, Christianson's mother, said that he was trusting and that "before these people robbed him, he might have brought them back to the house for beers."

Trinity had been working with Wiener tinting car windows for the past couple of years.

He grew up in San Diego and moved to Minnesota three years ago, said his mother, Yvonne Thorvick of San Diego. He wanted a fresh start after a divorce and followed a friend who offered him a job.

He liked to return to San Diego during the winters, but decided to tough it out this past year because he had a new girlfriend whom he had proposed to at Christmas-time, friends said Thursday night.

He and his fiancée had met in downtown Minneapolis, Mike Wiener said. She called Trinity that same night or the next, Wiener added, wondering when and where they might meet again.

"Do you know where Waldo's is?" she'd asked him.

"I'm up there all the time," he'd replied.

Staff writer Anthony Lonetree contributed to this report. dchanen@startribune.com • 612-673-4465 jadams@startribune.com • 612-673-7658