Surveillance video from inside a crowded northeast Minneapolis bar captured a man armed with a knife confronting a second man, who raised a gun in response and shot him to death Saturday night.
Officers were called shortly before 11:40 p.m. Saturday to the Spring Street Tavern at 355 Monroe St. NE. on a report of shots fired, police said. They arrived and found a 37-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to police.
Kenneth T. Rodriguez of Minneapolis died at the scene, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office said Monday.
Late Monday afternoon, Patrick W. Mince of Minneapolis was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Mincey's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for second-degree assault with a gun and kidnapping.
The criminal complaint does not include a count that directly addresses Rodriguez's death, but a spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said the case remains under investigation, leaving open the possibility of additional charges.
Mincey was taken to HCMC for treatment of injuries apparently inflicted by bystanders after the gunfire and then booked into the Hennepin County jail Sunday morning. A jail booking photo shows him with injuries to his eyes, nose and forehead. One eye was swollen shut.
He remains in custody ahead of a court hearing Tuesday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
Interior video showed Mincey having a conversation with another bar patron. Nearby was Rodriguez and two other men, all of them wearing vests identifying them as members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club.
A 10-minute clip from the video showed Mincey and Rodriguez not interacting until Rodriguez stared at Mincey, then approached. Rodriguez removed a knife and held it down along his right thigh. He then took a few steps toward Mincey, who was still in conversation with the other patron.
Rodriguez tapped Mincey on the chest while talking to him and moved even closer. The criminal complaint said Rodriguez chest-bumped Mincey at one point.
The two in Hell's Angels garb at Rodriguez's table stepped toward the men after the knife came out of its sheath.
After a few more seconds, Mincey raised his right arm, took a step back and fired from a gun inside what the complaint described as a white sock. The blast sent Rodriguez to the floor as patrons ducked for cover and scrambled for the exit.
Kevin Weber, a Spring Street server, said he was working at the other end of the bar, and "I didn't directly witness what happened. Basically, I heard the gunshot and hightailed it into the storage closet along with a few other people until the cops showed up."
Marques Jones was at the bar with a small group just inside the front door when "next thing you know, you hear a pop. I thought it was a balloon or something."
Jones, a Minneapolis firefighter who was off duty at the time, moved two women he was with into the freezer before he and a Fire Department academy member took turns performing CPR on Rodriguez for 8 to 12 minutes.
As the pair's lifesaving efforts continued, others in the bar "are beating [Mincey] up, subduing him," Jones said.
Medics soon arrived and confirmed Rodriguez was dead, said Jones, who works out of Fire Station 1 downtown.
Jones said he is one of many regulars of the bar, which he described as a favorite of nurses and firefighters who come in for breakfast after their overnight shifts.
"Nobody's causing no trouble," he said. "It's not a bar where you go to fight or make trouble. If you do, the regulars take care of it."
Star Tribune staff writer David Chanen contributed to this report.
