MINNEAPOLIS — A 25-year-old man is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder after prosecutors said he shot and killed two men inside a Minneapolis tobacco shop.
Maleek Jabril Conley, of Minneapolis, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder after two men were found dead inside a Dinkytown tobacco shop located on the 400 block of 14th Avenue Southeast. Conley is also charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder after court documents say he fired multiple shots at two others, striking one, a store employee, in the buttocks.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the shop around 2:15 a.m. on Dec. 3, 2023, on a report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found two deceased males inside and a store employee with a gunshot wound.
The employee, who was transported to a nearby hospital, told police that there was a "verbal altercation" that escalated into a fistfight. Court documents said that when the employee attempted to stop the fight, a gunman entered the store and fired a semiautomatic handgun at "specific members" of the group.
Two of the men, later identified as Jamartre Sanders and Bryson Haskell, died. Officials later determined at least 24 shots were fired inside the store.
The shooting was captured in multiple videos, according to court documents, corroborating the store employee's story. In the videos, the gunman can be seen firing multiple shots at Sanders and Haskell while standing about three feet away from them. The gunman also fired at least twice at another man, but missed. The store employee was struck by an errant shot, according to the complaint.
As shots were being fired, court documents say a store employee pushed a panic button which locked everyone inside the store. As the gunman was trying to flee, prosecutors said he shot out the glass from the door and crawled through the metal frame. Four other men reportedly followed the gunman out, and they all fled the area in a getaway vehicle.
That vehicle was later determined to be stolen.
Police said the gunman took the weapon with him, noting he was the only person seen with a firearm inside the store.
Investigators located the stolen vehicle outside an apartment building in south Minneapolis, where the building's camera footage showed the five men enter the complex less than 15 minutes after the shooting.
In the video, Conley is allegedly wearing the same shirt the gunman wore during the shooting.
Conley's bail was set at $2 million on Tuesday.
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