SAVAGE, Minn. — A man is charged with murder and his wife is charged with helping him to cover it up, after a teen was fatally shot in a Target parking lot on Feb. 28.
Taran Miller is charged with second-degree murder with intent - not premeditated, and second-degree murder without intent while committing a felony. His wife, TanyaMarie Miller, is charged with aiding an offender, and aiding an offender - accomplice after the fact.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Scott County, Minnesota, police responded to the Target in Savage, Minnesota on a report of a teen boy lying in the parking lot, bleeding. He was brought to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his head. The 16-year-old, later identified as Samuel Alvin Keezer, died from his injuries.
Police learned from surveillance video that a vehicle had pulled into the area where Keezer was found, and then a second vehicle pulled up. One of the occupants of the first vehicle, later identified as Keezer, got out and got into the second vehicle. Video shows the other car leaving, and then Keezer falling or being pushed out of the second vehicle before it drives away.
According to the complaint, police found out that Keezer had been communicating with another teen on Snapchat. They were planning to meet up so Keezer could buy marijuana.
The other teen's identity is being withheld because he is a juvenile.
Officers were able to track down another person who had been in the first car with Keezer. He told them that Keezer had planned to meet up with the other teen, take his marijuana, and run to meet his friends. When Keezer didn't come back, the friend told police he ran back to the parking lot and saw Keezer lying on the ground, bleeding. At that point he said he ran back to the car and drove away.
After talking with more witnesses, officers were able to find the teen Keezer had been Snapchatting with. They interviewed him, and he told police that he and his father, Taran Miller, had agreed to sell marijuana to Keezer. He said Keezer gave them different places to meet and then did not show up, and that Miller wanted to go home and sell the marijuana to someone else. Then Keezer said he wanted to meet at Target.
The teen told officers that his father told him to go into the house and get his gun before they went to Target. When they met Keezer, he said Keezer got into the car but kept the door ajar. He said he and his dad kept telling Keezer to close the door, but the teen said Keezer was smelling and handling the marjiuana. The teen then said his dad shot Keezer in the head, pushed him out of the car and told him to drive away.
According to the complaint, when police interviewed Miller, he confirmed his son's account of meeting Keezer to sell him marijuana. He said he brought his handgun for protection. He told officers that he had done other drug deals with Keezer. He said when Keezer wouldn't close the door, he thought he was going to take the marijuana and run off without paying. Miller then told police that he shot Keezer in the head, and told his son to drive away, according to the complaint.
The complaint says Taran Miller called his wife, TanyaMarie Miller, and told her he had shot Keezer in the head. She helped him hide the vehicle in the garage so it wouldn't be found, and talked to her sister about taking the firearm used in the shooting, according to the complaint.