Medical examiner identifies 8 recent Minneapolis homicide victims

Hennepin County authorities on Friday released the identities of eight Minneapolis homicide victims, including a man who succumbed to his injuries five months after being shot.

The new information brought the number of homicides in Minneapolis this year to 71, according to a Star Tribune database.

The Medical Examiner's Office said that Kenneth Durand, 39, who was wounded in a shooting April 10 in the area of N. 36th and Aldrich avenues, died of complications from those injuries on Sept. 11 at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale. No other details have been released about that case, which remains unsolved.

Authorities also formally identified 19-year-old Jaylen Salter, who was killed Sept. 9 in a triple shooting at the Clientele Barbershop at 707 N. 42nd Av. Officials say that several masked gunmen walked by and fired as Salter sat inside the shop, killing the Patrick Henry High School graduate, who went by the nickname "Duke." One of the rounds grazed another man, while another flew into the leg of a woman who had taken her young son to get his hair cut, officials said.

Salter's death wasn't the first tragedy to befall his mother, who lost another son, Brandon, 27, last summer in a shooting in the Elliot Park neighborhood. The brothers' father was fatally shot several years ago.

Several of the victims whose names were released Friday had previously been identified publicly.

Among them was London Bean, a 12-year-old boy who was shot to death last week in what police have called a neighborhood dispute. Authorities on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the teenage suspect who allegedly fired the fatal bullets outside a north Minneapolis apartment complex. His whereabouts remain unknown.

The other victims were:

• Darren Maurice Blissitt, 59, who died Sept. 9 shortly after being found inside an apartment in the 2000 block of N. Emerson Avenue, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

• Darien Darell Berry, 28, who died Sept. 10 after being shot in the torso outside a convenience store in the 2100 block of Glenwood Avenue, which has been the site of several shootings in recent weeks. A 21-year-old northeast Minneapolis man, who was also injured by another gunman in the shooting, has been charged with second-degree murder in the case.

• Arnanza Lomanteza Cork, 41, who was found slumped in a car in the 2400 block of S. 24th Avenue on Sept. 12. He had been shot several times.

• Harvey Williams, a 29-year-old teacher who died of multiple gunshot wounds Tuesday after police say a gunman or gunmen sprayed his car with automatic gunfire in the area of N. 49th and Lyndale avenues.

• Christopher Crockrom, 24, who died of a gunshot wound to the chest in a shooting Wednesday in the 1800 block of S. 3rd Avenue.