Man charged in Minneapolis mass shooting near high school, as slain victim’s sister laments violence

A man has been charged in last month’s midday mass shooting that left a 35-year-old man dead near Lake Street in south Minneapolis, as the victim’s sister lamented another life lost to a senseless crime.

Trayveion Alvin Green, 24, of Minneapolis, was arrested and charged with seven counts of second-degree murder on Tuesday in the Aug. 26 shooting near the intersection of Clinton Avenue S. and 29th Avenue S., where Gregory Sweeten was killed and six others were seriously injured.

The mass shooting was eclipsed one day later by another tragedy in Minneapolis, when a shooter fired into Annunciation Church during morning Mass, killing two children and wounding 21 people.

Two more mass shootings would follow within 12 hours of each other last week, killing two and wounding several others.

Misha Sweeten says it’s important to remember her big brother Gregory as more than just another Black man lost in a recent unprecedented spate of gun violence in the city — one that drew national media here in the case of the Annunciation shooting.

“It’s sad,” Sweeten, 34, said in an interview. “It’s like he meant nothing, but he meant the world for a lot of people.”

Officers arrested Green about 10:45 p.m. Monday in downtown, near the 600 block of First Avenue N., according to police. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a release he’s hopeful the arrest and charges “will begin to provide a sense of justice for the victims and their families.”

The car was allegedly driven to the shooting scene by accused accomplice Ryan Timothy Quinn, 33, and passenger Tiffany Lynn Marie Martindale, 30.

During the investigation, charges say, officers learned that Martindale had made “numerous” calls to the alleged shooter who she referred to as “Bino.” Investigators obtained the subscriber information for “Bino’s” phone number and identified the shooter as Green, according to his criminal complaint.

Quinn and Martindale were charged with with aiding an offender to avoid arrest in connection with the shooting and remain jailed.

According to the complaint, Green got into a car driven by Quinn just after noon at 101 S. 5th St. in downtown Minneapolis.

After driving to Clinton Avenue, the charges allege that Green got out wearing a mask and holding a rifle before firing nearly 30 shots in eight seconds.

The charges, first filed Sept. 17 when Green was still at large, do not say how Green was found or where he was arrested. The charges were sealed until this week at request of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, citing concerns that Green would flee.

In February, Green was arrested in south Minneapolis and charged with selling fentanyl and possessing a machine gun, after he was found with a handgun modified with a “switch” to make it fully automatic, according to the charges.

Police arrested him after observing drug transactions near the intersection of E. Lake Street and Third Avenue S. — a block away from the August mass shooting for which he stands charged. Green was given conditional release from jail one day after his February arrest, after posting his $100,000 bond, records show.

Green’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. Green’s criminal record also includes an open case from January, when he was charged with possessing 41 grams of fentanyl.

The August shooting was just north of a commercial stretch of Lake Street that’s been the scene of fatal shootings and violent crimes recently. The area was also the scene of a high-profile scuffle in June between federal agents serving a search warrant and protesters fearful that an immigration raid was in progress.

The city’s 50th homicide occurred over the weekend, when 36-year-old Adonis Qumar Meekins was fatally shot near Chicago Avenue S. and Franklin Avenue. The total compares to 62 homicides at this time last year, according to a Star Tribune Database.

Two days after the shooting, a letter addressed to Sweeten was taped on the chain link fence near where he was killed, signed by someone claiming to be his wife. “I will never be the same without you,” it read. The sidewalks were painted with graffiti paying homage to him: “RIP Levi,” a nickname for Sweeten.

Misha Sweeten described her brother as caring and someone who “always knew how to lift my spirit.” Their family moved from Chicago to Minneapolis in 2001 after their other brother was shot and killed, she said. She added he was passionate about making music and enjoyed making R&B and rap songs. He was a proud dad of two sons, ages 10 and 8.

He had been couch-surfing recently, moving from place to place and struggling with housing situations, his sister said.

“I was devastated — that’s my best friend," she said. “My brother is my everything. He was the last person I have left on this earth.”

“Greg was not the intended target; he didn’t have much to start whatever war is going on,” she said. “I hope that justice is served.”