A man has been charged for his role in a Minneapolis shooting during a robbery attempt that left one man dead and injured another just feet from a toddler.
Hennepin County prosecutors charged Darnell Cornelius Lewis, 21, of St. Paul with first-degree robbery and first- and second-degree assault for a shooting in the alley of a small apartment building in the 2400 block of Golden Valley Road last Friday that killed Marlo Randy Phillips, 27, and left a second victim with serious injuries. Lewis is expected to make his first court appearance today, and additional charges could be filed pending further investigation.
According to charging documents:
A man drove himself to North Memorial Health hospital that day with life-threatening bullet injuries. The man told officers that he agreed to meet a buyer in that alley on Golden Valley Road to sell 2 ounces of marijuana, explaining that he began selling narcotics after losing his job. He brought his 2-year-old daughter with him.
Lewis and Phillips allegedly approached the victim’s sedan wearing masks after he announced he had arrived. The victim said one of the men entered his passenger door and “immediately” pointed a gun at his stomach. The two fought for the weapon. He was shot multiple times before he said Lewis circled to the passenger side of his vehicle and also began shooting at him. He said they fell out of the vehicle but re-entered from the passenger side because the auto-lock was broken. He crashed his sedan into a parked car before fleeing the scene as Lewis shot at them.
The man was treated for five gunshot wounds: one in his chest, right thigh and right wrist, and two wounds in his left thigh. Medical staff said some of the chest wound was critical, and they removed part of the man’s intestines to treat his injuries.
Nearby video footage confirms much of what the victim reported.
Officers say that footage captured Lewis and Phillips approaching the victim’s sedan while wearing ski masks. Phillips entered the passenger seat while Lewis remained near the driver’s door. Then “what sounds like a muffled gunshot can be heard,” the charging documents read.
