A Minneapolis man was charged Wednesday with fatally shooting a man outside an apartment building on St. Paul's East Side on Saturday night.

Durron L. Brown, 26, climbed into the back seat of a car with the victim, Marcelis L. Stafford, 21, and then shot Stafford after arguing with Stafford and announcing, "This is a robbery," the charges say.

The shooting occurred about 10:45 p.m. in a parking lot behind the Hillsberry 94 Apartments on Ruth Street off Interstate 94.

According to the charges, a woman who is the mother of Stafford's children told police after the shooting that Stafford had agreed earlier that day to sell a quarter pound of marijuana to a male she did not know for $1,350.

"She believed that the male robbed [Stafford] of the dope and that it was a set-up from the start," the complaint against Brown states.

Brown was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder. He also was charged with attempted second-degree murder after allegedly firing at Stafford's brother after he got out of the car, the charges state. The brother was not wounded.

Bail has been set at $500,000.

ANTHONY LONETREE