Prosecutors have charged a Shakopee man with shooting at two mosque worshipers Monday, wounding one and forcing the other to dive to the ground for safety.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Yancy Hall, 68, with drive-by shooting and two counts of second-degree assault.
Hall appeared in court Friday and was expected back in court on Oct. 7. He remained jailed.
According to charging documents, authorities were investigating Hall for drug violations when worshipers found him selling drugs near the Masjid An-Nur mosque on Lyndale Avenue in the city’s Near North neighborhood.
When police arrived at the scene of the shooting, they found people helping a 75-year-old man bleeding from a gunshot wound in his arm and two in his shoulder. Used bullet cartridges littered the ground nearby.
As the man was taken to a hospital, he told police that he was leaving evening prayer at the mosque when he told the suspect he could not sell drugs in the area. He said the man drove away in a white SUV, but then made a U-turn and started shooting.
Another worshiper said the suspect was just a few feet away when at least five shots were fired. He said he had to dive to the ground for safety.
Authorities said surveillance video shows Hall’s SUV stopped near the mosque’s parking lot entrance for 20 minutes as a number of people approached and left his vehicle. The video appears to show Hall driving onto Lyndale before turning around and stopping in front of the mosque. Five gunshots ring out, and a person is seen diving behind a vehicle before the SUV flees the scene.
