Charge: Fatal shooting after bar closing time in downtown Minneapolis followed verbal clash

The shooting death of a man in downtown Minneapolis followed a verbal clash among people leaving a bar after closing time, according to charges filed Tuesday.

Kevion J. Gibbs, 23, of West Point, Miss., was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the shooting of Deandre I. Smith, 33, of Minneapolis, in a parking lot near Augie's Bar on Hennepin Avenue shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday. Smith died barely 20 minutes later at HCMC.

Gibbs remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

A Metro Transit police officer on the scene shot a fleeing Gibbs in the leg. He was taken to HCMC for treatment of his wound before being booked into jail.

Through Monday night, there have been 39 homicides in Minneapolis so far this year. In 2020, there were 84 homicides, the second-most in a year in the city. The record of 97 was set in 1995. In all of 2019, the city recorded 48 homicides.

According to the complaint against Gibbs:

Gibbs and Smith were among a large group of people leaving Augie's and heading to a parking lot. Transit police nearby saw "a verbal confrontation going on" within the group as they kept walking.

Gibbs drew a firearm, "tracked [Smith] with the gun" and fired two or three shots from about 5 feet away. He was hit in the chest and elsewhere.

Smith went down, got back to his feet and fell again near a fence at the edge of the parking lot.

Transit officers chased Gibbs toward the gunman's vehicle, and one of them shot Gibbs in the leg. Gibbs was arrested, and the suspected murder weapon was recovered.

Gibbs told police there was a confrontation among two men that started inside Augie's. He said his brother was punched by Smith and that Smith also punched him.

Smith claimed he shot into the ground to defend himself and to get the group to disperse. Police body-worn camera video, however, showed Gibbs aiming at Smith and then firing.