A Hennepin County jury has found a man not guilty of murder in a shooting at a north Minneapolis after-hours party on New Year's Day.
After about a week of testimony, the jury deliberated 11 hours before the acquittal on all counts of Bernard Augusta Mack, 28, of St. Paul. Mack was charged in late January with second-degree murder and unlawful weapon possession in the shooting of Deleon Davis, 28, also of St. Paul, in the city's first homicide of the year.
According to the criminal complaint, police were on the way to the shooting scene when Davis flagged down officers from the passenger seat of a vehicle two blocks south of the reported shooting.
Officers noticed he had a gunshot wound to his chest. He died about five hours later.
Davis' girlfriend told police that Mack was her ex-boyfriend and that Mack approached them at the party. Mack asked about his windows being broken and accused Davis of breaking them, the girlfriend said.
In a post-arrest statement, Mack admitted to being on the third floor of the building and seeing Davis with a woman he had a previous relationship with. Mack said Davis broke his car windows and that the damage cost $1,200 to fix. Upon approaching Davis and his girlfriend, security pushed him back, Mack said. Mack alleges someone punched him in the face at some point and that he heard shots fired. He said he did not see the shooter and that he was tackled to the ground.
Mack had been held in the Hennepin County Jail since his arrest.
