Charges filed in Sept. 4 shooting of cabdriver in Minneapolis

Suspect was charged earlier in another incident that happened same day.

October 6, 2015 at 2:48AM

Three felony charges have been filed against a Brooklyn Park man suspected of shooting and injuring a cabdriver on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis last month.

Anthony Terell Ford, 21, had already been charged with three counts of drive-by shooting stemming from an incident at a Minneapolis McDonald's drive-through later on the morning of Sept. 4. The new charges, filed late last week, are attempted second-degree murder, drive-by shooting and illegally possessing a gun after being found delinquent as a juvenile for first-degree robbery, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

According to the criminal complaint, a cabdriver was shot in the right forearm and thigh about 2:50 a.m. Sept. 4. He told police that he was driving east on the bridge when a car suddenly came up on the passenger side and someone began firing shots at him.

The cabdriver told police that a similar car had cut him off at an intersection and a man had gotten out and yelled at him. Video cameras showed that Ford's car had left the parking lot of a downtown bar, run a red light, cut off the taxi and later drove alongside it on the bridge, the complaint says.

About 15 minutes later, Ford was at a McDonald's near 45th and Lyndale avenues N. when he hit the rear end of the car ahead of him in the drive-through lane, charges say. When the driver got out to exchange information with Ford, he began yelling at her. She retreated to her vehicle, soon heard at least five gunshots and saw Ford driving away, according to the charges. One bullet struck the woman's car.

Ford hit a fence on the McDonald's property, and he and his passenger, Zelar Graves, 29, got out and ran away but were quickly caught, according to authorities. Police recovered a Smith & Wesson handgun from the car, and cartridges at the scene of both shootings were matched to the gun, charges state.

Graves was charged with aiding and abetting Ford at the restaurant shooting.

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