A 23-year-old man was charged Friday with robbing a north Minneapolis man with his own gun, as the victim and his girlfriend returned home from a trip to the casino, authorities said.
But in a bizarre twist to the case, police say the victim's girlfriend later admitted to hiring the defendant, Wilfred Kimba, to steal her boyfriend's car and furnished him with a gun. Kimba was arrested on Thursday and charged with first-degree aggravated robbery. His bail was set at $100,000.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours of July 24.
The girlfriend, whose name wasn't disclosed in a criminal complaint filed on Friday, told police that she intended to break off her relationship with the victim, but wanted "to leave the relationship with the vehicle," prosecutors said.
So last month, authorities say, she asked Kimba, an acquaintance of four or five years, to help her steal the vehicle.
While being questioned, the woman said that she stole the black Highpoint handgun from her boyfriend's safe and gave it to Kimba, instructing him to wait until the couple returned from the casino to carry out the robbery, the complaint stated. She reportedly told him that she would "feign that she too was being robbed," according to authorities.
But, the alleged plot began to unravel when the victim, after handing Kimba his keys at gunpoint and fleeing the scene, "looked back, and he noticed that his girlfriend was not running with him," prosecutors said. When he returned home, he saw that his gun wasn't in the safe, and called police.
Kimba is expected to make his initial appearance in Hennepin District court on Monday afternoon.
The investigation remains ongoing, police said.
