Just arrived in Minneapolis on a visit from Chicago, Jamau Burbridge was again on the phone with his 15-year-old nephew, Montrell Burbridge, about 8 p.m. Monday, talking about where and when they could meet.
July 9, 2007: Police identify two victims fatally shot in Minneapolis
Montrell Burbridge, a Chicago native, and Alison M. Daniels of Michigan, were killed within hours of each other in separate homicides Monday. No arrests have been made.
March 14, 2013 at 6:45PM
Montrell, a Chicago native, was probably going to head back there with his uncle and cousins at the end of the week for an end-of-summer visit, his uncle said.
But hours after their talk on the phone, Jamau Burbridge and other relatives and friends of Montrell were saying their last goodbyes to him at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. He had been shot several times in north Minneapolis and was pronounced dead early Tuesday.
"He was a kind, sweet-hearted person," Jamau Burbridge said Wednesday. "He made you laugh."
Montrell Burbridge, of Minneapolis, was the city's fifth homicide since Aug. 2 and the 31st this year. There were 40 homicides in the city at this time last year.
The 30th homicide came just hours earlier. Alison M. Daniels, 24, of East Lansing, Mich., was found dead Monday evening in her room at the Radisson University Hotel. Police didn't release motives in either shooting, and nobody has been arrested. Daniels, who was found about 6:30 p.m., had been shot once in the head. Employees informed police about her death, but it's unclear how long she had been dead, police said. It doesn't appear she is connected to the University of Minnesota.
Matt Monchamp, the hotel's general manager, referred all questions about the homicide to police.
Burbridge was shot about 8:40 p.m. near Oliver and 36th Avenues N. Police said several small bags of marijuana were found strewn near his body, but it's unclear if they belonged to him. He moved to Minneapolis about five years ago and had been living with family friends. A student at Uptown Academy, an alternative high school in Minneapolis, he got good grades and loved playing basketball and riding bikes, Jamau Burbridge said.
"He loved his little cousins," his uncle said, adding that Montrell would often crack jokes with them, play cards and video games and take them to the YMCA.
"He was just a regular kid," Jamau Burbridge said.
He expects that funeral services for his nephew will be held next week in Chicago.
