Charges: Single punch killed man in ‘broad daylight’ outside Minneapolis tobacco shop

A single punch killed a man during a dispute in “broad daylight” outside a Lyndale Avenue tobacco shop in south Minneapolis, according to murder charges and police records.

Coby Levan Richardson, 42, of Minneapolis was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, threats of violence and fifth-degree assault in connection with the Feb. 15 attack on 47-year-old Clay Anderson of St. Paul.

Richardson remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail ahead of a court appearance scheduled for March 18. A message was left with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations.

“This is yet another instance of a violent individual showing complete disregard for human life,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement shortly after Anderson died. “The suspect allegedly threatened and brutally assaulted the victim in broad daylight, in full view of the public.”

Friends and family went to social media to mourn Anderson, noting that he had donated his organs to those in need.

“Even death could not stop him in helping others as he donated his organs to help countless others live,” wrote his sister-in-law, Martina Meissner, on social media. “In something so senseless, we take solace in knowing he was able to give life and hope to so many others.”

According to the criminal complaint and police records:

After police received a report of an assault outside the Loon Smoke Shop, officers went to the 2500 block of Lyndale Avenue S. and found Anderson unconscious on his back in the parking lot. Emergency medical responders treated him for a fracture to the back of his skull and brain bleeding, but he died three days later at HCMC.

A man told police he was with his brother and Anderson when they crossed paths with Richardson at the shop. The men recognized Richardson from a conflict weeks earlier.

The man said Richardson threatened to kill the man’s brother and then punched the brother in his face. Richardson’s next punch sent Anderson backward to the sidewalk, where he hit his head, the man told police.

Police said Richardson fled the scene in a vehicle and was arrested Wednesday in the 2800 block of Knox Avenue S.

The man said he first encountered Richardson on Jan. 25 while having beers with his brother at a bar a few blocks from the scene of the assault. Richardson approached them and demanded they buy him a drink. When the brothers refused, Richardson warned them he was a Gangster Disciple from Chicago with a federal prison record.

Several people with Richardson at the bar, the man continued, “made trigger-pulling motions with their fingers,” according to the charges.

Richardson’s criminal history in Minnesota includes a 10-year federal sentence in 2009 for selling cocaine, two convictions in state court for drug offenses, and one each for threats of violence and theft.

There have been nine homicides in Minneapolis this year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database. That compares to eight at this time in 2024.