DULUTH – An Iron Range man accused of fatally shooting a man early Sunday in the parking lot of a Hibbing apartment building has been charged with second-degree murder.
Daniel James Dale, 31, of Hibbing allegedly admitted his part in the death of Parker Charles Johnson, who was shot three times during a party at the Meadowview Apartments, according to court documents filed in St. Louis County Court. Johnson, of Hibbing, turned 24 the day before he was killed.
According to the criminal complaint: Police were called to the scene after 2 a.m. Sunday on a report of gunshots. They found Johnson on the ground near a pickup truck. He was conscious when officers arrived but died at the scene. Johnson had a shotgun and spent 9mm cartridge casings near him.
Dale was at the apartment complex when police arrived and interviewed him, but he offered little information and was released along with other partygoers. A witness reported seeing Dale firing a gun in the parking lot but had assumed he was drunk and shooting rounds into the woods.
Dale was called to the police station on Sunday afternoon and, after first denying involvement, admitted he shot Johnson.
“I am going to say, yes, I shot him,” Dale said, telling an officer that it had been eating at him all night.
Dale told officers that Johnson, whom he didn’t know, had asked him during the party to go outside to see “something funny.” He claimed Johnson went to the passenger side of his truck, “whipped out” a long gun and pointed at him. Dale had his own gun in a holster and shot at Johnson. Officers said in the criminal complaint that surveillance audio from nearby and the gunshot wounds did not match Dale’s version of the events.
Dale is being held in the St. Louis County jail.
