A 52-year-old man was charged Tuesday with murdering a man in a north Minneapolis bedroom with a shotgun blast in front of the victim's girlfriend and her four little children, before turning the weapon on all of them and ordering them to tell police that the shooting was an accident.

Eddie N. Hubbard was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree assault in the shooting death Friday of Jeremiah C. Curtis at their home in the 2900 block of Girard Avenue N. Hubbard remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail.

Curtis died from a shotgun blast to the abdomen, according to the medical examiner's office. Hubbard was arrested later Friday.

Hubbard shot Curtis, according to the charges, because he refused to go with him to a pharmacy.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police sent on a call for a shooting shortly before 4 p.m. saw a woman, 23-year-old Kristi Lynn Squires, on her knees in front of the home "crying hysterically" as she held a baby. Another young child was next to her.

Police went to a bloodied upstairs bedroom and found Curtis' body and two more children, who were unharmed. The four children range in age from 1 month to 4 years.

Squires told police that Curtis was her boyfriend and the father of two of her children. She said Hubbard, who owns the residence, had asked her and Curtis to move out.

Curtis said he couldn't accompany Hubbard to the pharmacy because they were busy packing.

As Hubbard pointed the shotgun at Curtis, Squires began to cry and pleading for Hubbard to put down the weapon.

Hubbard shot Curtis once and then pointed the gun at the others and said to Squires that she better tell police "it was an accident."

The gunman fled and was arrested later Friday.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482