A 19-year-old felon was charged Tuesday with the homicide of one of two men who died in a shootout Sunday at a north Minneapolis market where children were in harm's way.
The deaths came in a wave of gunfire that left four men dead in three days in the city.
Earlier Tuesday, Jamarius M. Shief, 18, of Minneapolis, and Samuel T. Abron-Yeager, 23, of Fridley, were identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office as the men who died from multiple gunshot wounds suffered at the Emerson Food Market in the 2600 block of Emerson Avenue N.
Shief died at the scene, and Abron-Yeager died less than two hours later at North Memorial Health Hospital, presumably shot by Shief, officials said. A third man suffered noncritical gunshot wounds.
Demerio D. Davis, 19, of Minneapolis, was found soon afterward two blocks from the store and charged with murder in connection with the death of Abron-Yeager.
Davis, who goes by several aliases, also was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors said they will seek an especially long sentence for Davis if he is convicted of murder, explaining in a statement that "numerous other community members, including children, were present in and around the store at the time of the shooting."
In a statement, the county attorney's office said "Abron-Yeager is suspected of having fatally shot Shief, although the investigation is continuing."
In his brief time as an adult, Davis has two convictions in Minnesota for theft, one a misdemeanor and the other a felony. His felony conviction on Aug. 29 called for him to perform 20 days of community service and three years' probation. He also was convicted in juvenile court in 2013 for felony first-degree robbery.
Sunday's shootout prompted a probation violation hearing for Davis on Wednesday, the same day he'll also appear on the murder count.
The market killings followed two others on Friday elsewhere in the city. The medical examiner's office identified one of the men as 32-year-old Liban Mohamed Abdulahi, of Burnsville. Officers found his body inside a car in the parking lot behind the Hard Times Cafe in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood Friday night.
The other homicide victim Friday was identified as Steven L. Fields, 42, of Richfield, who was found shot multiple times behind a bar in the 2000 block of Washington Avenue N.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
