17-year-old charged in fatal shooting at downtown Minneapolis light rail station
MINNEAPOLIS -- A 17-year-old boy from St. Paul was charged Thursday in connection to a shooting at a downtown Minneapolis light rail station that left a 15-year-old dead.
The boy faces second-degree intentional murder charges, according to a juvenile petition filed on Thursday.
Police arrived at the scene of the Nicollet Mall Station around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, where they found the 15-year-old boy lying on the platform surrounded by blood. Officers and a bystander tried to provide medical care, but the boy was declared dead at the scene. He was identified as Fred Ulysses Walker.
The county attorney's office says police found a discharged cartridge casing next to the boy's body.
Metro transit surveillance video shows the teenager riding the light rail while the victim walks on the Nicollet Mall platform. The suspect looks through the window and stares the victim down and pulls out a handgun. The victim raises both hands in the air, and the suspect fires the gun, the petition says. The suspect then gets off the train and runs off the platform.
After viewing Metro Transit footage, police spoke to a bus driver who said an individual matching the suspect's description had just gotten off the bus.
Police searched the area and found the suspect. He was carrying a handgun with an extended magazine which was the same caliber as the discharged casing at the scene, and admitted to shooting the victim, the county attorney's office says.
The teen will make his first court appearance Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors will seek to have him tried as an adult.
