14-year term for shooter caught on city bus video killing man leaving Minneapolis apartment building

Surveillance images from a bus that happened to be stopped nearby and a church matched witness accounts, the criminal complaint read.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 24, 2024 at 1:12PM
A C Line rapid bus approaches a stop at Olson Memorial Highway and Penn Ave. N. Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, outside HCMC at 8th St. and Chicago Ave.] DAVID JOLES • david.joles@startribune.com This year will be an important building block for Metro Transit's bedrock bus service. More than a half dozen major lines are in the works, including the Upper Midwest's first true bus-rapid transit line in the east Metro. But transit planners say a stable source of funding is needed to make the transit system
Metro Transit bus in north Minneapolis. (David Joles/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A 39-year-old man has received a term topping 14 years for a fatal shooting that was captured on video from a Metro Transit bus that just happened to be stopped nearby in north Minneapolis.

William Vincent Johnson, of Minneapolis, was sentenced Monday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 25, 2023, shooting of Mark D. Bradley, of St. Paul, in the 2200 block of N. Emerson Avenue.

Police arrested Johnson in south Minneapolis on March 13, 2023, on a separate case involving illegal possession of ammunition. He also was sentenced to a five-year term for that offense. Johnson will serve both sentences concurrently.

With credit for time served since arrest following the murder, Johnson is expected to serve nearly 8½ years of his 14¼-year term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

Just after noon, police responded to the scene of the shooting and found Bradley shot in the head and the abdomen. Emergency medical responders declared him dead at the scene.

Surveillance images from a bus that had “coincidentally stopped near the shooting when it occurred” and a church matched witness accounts that Bradley left an apartment building and was shot by one of two men as they entered.

The complaint did not offer a motive for the killing.

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