A 23-year-old man was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with fatally shooting a man in the head last week at a Brooklyn Center gas station during a robbery in the midst of an illicit drug deal.

Giovanni V. Williams, of Minneapolis, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Dattreas Markeal Stewart, 45, of Brooklyn Center, at the Pump n' Munch, 1505 69th Av. N., last Wednesday night.

Brooklyn Center police arrested Williams at a home in Brooklyn Park, and he remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of a Wednesday court appearance.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were called to the gas station about 9:15 p.m. and located Stewart in the front passenger seat of an SUV, where his girlfriend was screaming and holding a piece of clothing against his head wound. Police and paramedics treated him, but he died at the scene.

The woman told police that a man she knew as Giovanni shot her boyfriend. A handgun was found outside the vehicle. There also was a handgun on the passenger floorboard where Stewart was sitting.

Giovanni V. Williams Credit: Hennepin County jail

She explained to police that she had arranged with someone to sell an ounce of marijuana for $300, and that person put her in contact with Williams. The agreement was for the deal to be made at the gas station.

The girlfriend drove herself and Stewart to the meeting place. Williams arrived minutes later with two other males and pulled up next to the SUV.

Williams got in the back seat of the SUV and asked to smell the marijuana, then told Stewart he was being robbed before shooting his victim once in the head. Williams got back in his car with a bag of marijuana and left.

Surveillance video and someone who accompanied Williams to the gas station verified much of the girlfriend's account.

The complaint also notes that Williams is a suspect in a 2017 drug robbery in Moorhead, Minn.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482