Two teenagers are charged with shooting delivery driver

Last update: October 1, 2007 - 7:52 PM

Two teenagers charged in the shooting of a DHL delivery driver in north Minneapolis decided to rob him as they came home from school, according to the complaint filed Monday.

Nathaniel L. Collins, 16, of Minneapolis, and Dempsey Brown, 17, of New Hope, were charged with felony first-degree assault and juveniles in possession with a gun. Collins was also charged with being an accomplice after the shooting.

The teenagers blamed the shooting on each other, according to the criminal complaint. Collins told police that Brown ordered driver Dwayne Greer out of his van. As Greer tried to drive away, Brown shot through the door, and a bullet hit Greer in the pelvis.

Greer stopped at a hardware store at Penn and Lowry Avenues N. to get help. Doctors feared removing the bullet might paralyze him. He was released from the hospital Monday.

Collins said Brown put the gun in his backpack, the complaint said. Collins tried to dump the gun at a friend's house, but the friend wasn't home.

Brown said Collins was the shooter. Investigators found three photos of the gun on Brown's cell phone taken an hour before the shooting Thursday.

Greer, 35, told the Star Tribune that the teenagers were about 3 feet away when he was shot.

DAVID CHANEN

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