Case unsealed against alleged getaway driver for man accused of killing 2 in Dinkytown tobacco shop

Prosecutors on Tuesday made public charges filed six months ago against a man police are trying to find who allegedly was the getaway driver for the gunman accused of killing two people in a Dinkytown tobacco shop.

Taynard Town Deshawn Godsey, 26, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with four counts of aiding an offender after the fact, in connection with the suspected gang-related shooting at Royal Cigar Tobacco on Dec. 3 that also wounded a store clerk with a bullet intended for another.

The men who died were identified as Bryson Lamarr Haskell and Jamartre Michael Sanders, both 24 and from Minneapolis.

The alleged shooter, 26-year-old Maleek Jabril Conley, of Minneapolis, was arrested in Chicago in March on two charges each of second-degree murder and attempted murder. He remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail and has a court hearing scheduled for June 28.

The court kept the criminal complaint against Godsey, filed five days after the killings, under wraps out of law enforcement’s concern that he would evade arrest if he knew he had been charged. The complaint was unsealed soon after police turned to social media Friday for help finding Godsey.

Godsey is “believed to be in Minnesota or Arizona,” a police Facebook posting read. “He has worked as a model in the past and may be using a fake name or ID.”

Gunfire erupted in the shop after a brawl broke out between two groups of people in the tiny, family-owned smoke shop at SE. 4th Street and 14th Avenue SE. near the University of Minnesota at about 2:15 a.m., before a posted closing time of 3 a.m. Video depicted a melee involving at least seven men, with two of them exchanging punches on the floor as products spilled from shelves.

Haskell and Sanders were shot in the head and neck several times while the store clerk was struck in the buttocks by a stray bullet. The clerk told police the victims were with one of the groups that got into an argument and a fistfight that he and other employees tried to stop. But Conley entered the store and unleashed a barrage of semiautomatic gunfire.

Video corroborated the clerk’s account and revealed that Conley fired directly at Haskell and Sanders while standing 3 feet away. Conley also fired at least twice at a fourth victim from close range but missed, wounding the clerk.

Godsey was involved in the fistfight and was standing near Conley as the gunfire erupted.

A store employee pressed a panic button that locked everyone inside. When Conley realized this, he shot out a glass door and crawled through the metal frame, followed by four accomplices. All five men ran to a stolen Kia and fled the scene with Godsey behind the wheel.

The stolen Kia was found outside a suspect’s apartment building in the 2400 block of Elliot Avenue. Surveillance video from the apartment showed all five men at the site 15 minutes after the shooting.

Police described Godsey as Black, 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. They said he has light brown hair styled in short dreadlocks, freckles on his face, and both of his ears are pierced. He has a birthmark on his right arm and multiple tattoos on his left forearm and upper arm, police added.