A man who was identified Friday as the person killed with a punch to the head in March at a downtown Minneapolis shelter was the first of two people allegedly killed by the same suspect on successive days.
Charges say man who threw fatal punch at Minneapolis shelter also killed man next day in Crystal
The first attack happened at the Higher Ground shelter on Glenwood Avenue on edge of downtown.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 2, 2024 at 2:14PM
DeVaughn Wesley Levi, 40, of Minneapolis suffered brain and skull injuries from a blow to the head on March 19 at the Higher Ground Catholic Charities building, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Levi died on April 6 at HCMC.
Charged with second-degree murder and assault in connection with Levi’s death is Larondo Connell Willis, 37, a resident of the shelter.
According to the charges, Willis punched Levi “once hard in the head” while the two were on the shelter’s patio shortly before 10 p.m., then punched him again after he fell.
Willis also is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his cousin, Eddie D. Winters, 40, of Minneapolis, on March 20. Winters, whose body was found in an SUV in Crystal, had been stabbed 19 times.
Willis was arrested on March 21 and remains jailed in lieu of $1 million ahead of back-to-back court hearings scheduled for Oct. 4. A message was left Friday with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations in both cases.
Charges in both cases do not offer a motive for either crime.
At the time of the killings, Willis was on supervised release after serving slightly less than eight years in prison for a rape in Hennepin County in 2015.
According to the criminal complaint filed in connection with Winters’ death:
Officers were dispatched about 7:25 a.m. March 21 to the 3200 block of N. Hampshire Avenue along Valley Place Park to check on an SUV that had been there for hours with the engine running. The officers found Winters dead inside the vehicle with wounds to his neck.
Winters’ 14-year-old son told police he drove his father to a barbershop that previous evening. A man later entered whom Winters referred to as his cousin.
The teen said that he, his father and the man left the barbershop together. The teen was dropped off at home, and Winters and the man drove off not long before the stabbing occurred.
Pioneering surgeon has run afoul of Fairview Health Services, though, which suspended his hospital privileges amid an investigation of his patient care.
