British Autavia Morris-Rice was fatally shot earlier this month as she drove by a man who had fought with her male companion on St. Paul's West Side, according to murder charges filed against the alleged shooter.
Morris-Rice, 22, was found unconscious about 11:45 p.m. July 19 in the driver's seat of a car that had crashed on a service road near Robert and George streets. She was transported to Regions Hospital, where she died nine hours later after being taken off life support.
DeMarcus L. Barnett, 29, was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder in her death. Barnett, who is not in custody and doesn't have a known address, was charged via arrest warrant.
According to the complaint:
Morris-Rice, her male companion and Barnett were at a party that night on E. Delos Street. Witnesses, their accounts backed by surveillance video, said that Barnett scuffled with Morris-Rice's male companion about 11:30 p.m.
The manager of a restaurant on Cesar Chavez Street told police that he saw two groups of men arguing outside and a woman yelling, "Just leave! Stop being disrespectful to people." The woman yelled for the group to leave and everyone did so, the restaurant manager told police.
Surveillance video from the restaurant shows three men fighting in the distance, one man chasing another, and finally Morris-Rice pulling the car into a parking lot and quickly executing a three-point turn in order to get out of the dead end.
The video then shows Morris-Rice driving out of the lot when a man a few feet away extends his arm, tracks the car and fires. Two witnesses at the party identified Barnett as the man who extends his arm in the video, according to the complaint.
