Investigators in Hennepin County allege that a shootout this month at a Minneapolis homeless encampment stemmed from a dispute over who got to sell drugs inside the “makeshift urban campsite” and occurred just hours after a different mass shooting curtailed efforts to deal drugs at another spot.
Trivon Leonard Jr., of Richton Park, Ill., is charged with first-degree riot and illegal possession of a firearm in the shooting near Lake Street and 28th Avenue S. that killed 30-year-old Jacinda Oakgrove and injured six others.
Leonard, who has several felony convictions in Illinois, where he is on parole, had been released from Hennepin County jail about four hours before the shooting. Two days prior, he was arrested for allegedly driving drunk through Minneapolis at 92 miles per hour.
It was the second mass shooting within 12 hours that day in Minneapolis.
The burst of violence led the city to close the encampment, which had been housed on the private parking lot of Minneapolis property owner Hamoudi Sabri.
One victim told investigators he had gone to the encampment to buy drugs and was going from tent to tent looking for a dealer.
When he arrived, he said, he heard a man and a woman arguing over who was allowed to sell drugs in the area. A new group of drug dealers had arrived shortly before and allegedly pulled out weapons as the argument escalated underneath a canopy structure in the encampment. Gunfire erupted shortly after.
Witnesses said the men had arrived in a white SUV; police canvassed the area and found surveillance footage that captured the scene. People with both drug crews were shot in the melee, as were innocent bystanders.
