Man, 75, attacked last week after leaving Metro Transit bus dies, Minneapolis police say

Victim, 75, died six days after being punched by the 23-year-old suspect.

November 13, 2019 at 11:38AM
Leroy Davis-Miles
Leroy Davis-Miles (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A 75-year-old man who was brutally beaten after asking a group of young men to lower their voices while on a Metro Transit bus died Tuesday.

Charges against the man accused in the attack were immediately amended from felony assault to second-degree murder.

Leroy Davis-Miles, 23, of Minneapolis, made his first court appearance Tuesday in connection with the Nov. 6 incident. Bail was set at $150,000.

The victim's identity along with the cause of the death will be released by the Medical Examiner's Office. His death is the 39th homicide this year in Minneapolis.

According to last week's criminal complaint, the man boarded the bus shortly before Davis-Miles and a group of his friends. Cameras on the bus captured the victim approaching the group to ask them to stop being so loud. The men became hostile and threatened to beat him when he got off the bus.

When the older man left the bus at the Chicago-Lake Transit Center, the group of men followed. Davis-Miles walked parallel to the man for a short distance before getting closer to him and punching him once, according to surveillance video and witnesses. The man fell backward and struck his head on the pavement.

Davis-Miles shook hands "in a congratulatory manner" with one of his friends as the man lay unconscious on the ground, the charges say. Several of them rummaged through the victim's pockets.

Mary Lynn Smith • 612-673-4788

about the writer

about the writer

Mary Lynn Smith

Reporter

Mary Lynn Smith is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune. She previously covered St. Paul City Hall and Ramsey County. Before that, she worked in Duluth where she covered local and state government and business. She frequently has written about the outdoors.

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