Man charged with fatally shooting Minneapolis man in front of his children

A man suspected of killing another man in front of his children outside of a north Minneapolis apartment complex last Friday has turned himself in, police said.

James Woodard, 32, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the slaying of Divittin Hoskins outside the complex in the 1600 block of Plymouth Avenue N., authorities said.

Woodard is also wanted on a felony warrant from Scott County, according to online jail records. He turned himself in Tuesday afternoon and was booked into the Hennepin County jail. He's being held on a $2 million bond.

On the night of the shooting, Woodard crouched next to a garage behind the apartment complex and lay in wait for Hoskins to arrive, authorities said.

Investigators say that an as-yet-unidentified accomplice appeared to signal Woodard after Hoskins pulled into the parking lot.

As Hoskins and his children started toward the garage, Woodard ran up behind his target and fired once at the back of his head, authorities said.

It was unclear whether Hoskins had time to react. He died at the scene.

The children were not harmed, but were "hysterical" after the shooting, authorities said. They were escorted from the scene by acquaintances.

Several witnesses identified Woodard as being involved in the shooting, which was caught on surveillance cameras, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

The slaying, the city's 20th of the year, was part of a bloody weekend that left at least four other people wounded by gunfire and another seven wounded in a string of stabbings, according to police records.

Friday's shooting took place behind an apartment complex a few blocks east of the police station. That particular block has a troubled history, which includes a shooting last spring in which a 10-year-old girl was struck by a wayward bullet while inside her home. This came just days after a double shooting behind an apartment complex on Plymouth Avenue.

It also was the site of the police shooting of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man who died during a confrontation with two officers in November 2015 that touched off a series of protests.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter:@StribJany