Fridley man charged with shooting outside downtown Minneapolis restaurant

The suspect, Shirell Watkins Jr., 24, was charged Friday through a warrant complaint with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

March 25, 2023 at 12:17AM

A Fridley man who remains at large was charged Friday with shooting another man outside a downtown Minneapolis restaurant last weekend.

The suspect, Shirell Watkins Jr., 24, was charged through a warrant complaint with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon. Last Sunday night's shooting outside the Breakfast Bar of Minnesota had dozens of nearby concertgoers running for cover as they exited a sold-out show at Fine Line Music Cafe, across North 1st Ave.

Minneapolis police responding to the shooting around 9:30 p.m. found a man with several gunshot wounds lying in the street. Officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived and took the victim to HCMC.

Bullet casings littered the sidewalk outside the restaurant's fence.

The man was reported to be in critical condition but likely to survive. He was shot twice in the chest and grazed by a shot to the leg.

Surveillance video showed a man, believed to be Watkins, in the tent-covered patio area of the restaurant, before the shooting victim and another man approached Watkins. The shooting victim and the other man began punching Watkins, before security guards pushed the fighting group outside.

Other cameras on First Avenue showed three people running out of the bar, with two heading south and one man running across the street, the charges state.

Emergency dispatch audio on Sunday indicated that the shooter was standing on the Breakfast Bar patio when he fired toward the street, striking the victim twice in the chest and abdomen, before fleeing.

Watkins' whereabouts are currently unknown, the charges say.

about the writer

about the writer

Louis Krauss

Reporter

Louis Krauss is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune.

See Moreicon

More from No Section

See More
FILE -- A rent deposit slot at an apartment complex in Tucker, Ga., on July 21, 2020. As an eviction crisis has seemed increasingly likely this summer, everyone in the housing market has made the same plea to Washington: Send money — lots of it — that would keep renters in their homes and landlords afloat. (Melissa Golden/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT58
Melissa Golden/The New York Times

It’s too soon to tell how much the immigration crackdown is to blame.