Man charged with murder after transgender woman was shot point-blank near Lake Street

A man charged in the fatal shooting last week near Lake Street said he shot the victim point-blank after a sex act, according to newly filed charges.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Tuesday charged Damarean Kaylon Bible, 25, with second-degree murder in connection to the shooting of Savannah Ryan Williams, 38, of St. Paul. (The Star Tribune formerly identified Williams, who was transgender, by her legal name provided by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.)

Bible was arrested and booked into jail Friday. An attorney is not yet listed for Bible, who remains jailed; his first court appearance Wednesday.

According to the charges based on surveillance video:

Williams was left for dead and it was hours before her body was discovered Nov. 29.

Officers responded around 9 a.m. to a report of a person not breathing in a courtyard at 3023 4th Av. S.

Surveillance video from nearby buildings shows Williams and Bible walking toward the crime scene at 5 a.m. Bible left alone around 5:45 a.m., when witnesses reported hearing a gunshot from the area. Witnesses also say they saw a man at the time walking north from the crime scene along 4th Avenue toward Lake Street.

Video then showed Bible head to the Lake Street light-rail station where he rode a train downtown and exited at the Nicollet/5th Street Station. He walked south to an apartment building at 95 S. 10th St. Investigators went there and showed a photograph of Bible to building management, who identified the suspect. Bible was arrested as he left the apartment.

Bible initially denied being involved, but when shown video evidence he admitted to shooting Williams. Bible told investigators that he walked past Williams, who was sitting at a bus shelter on Lake Street. He said that Williams asked if he wanted sex and they went to the nearby courtyard. Bible said he had a 9mm handgun in his pocket and he began to feel "suspicious" of Williams. After the sexual act, he shot her.

He called his parents from jail and in one conversation with his dad, Bible admitted to killing someone. Bible in the call said that while he felt sorry and wasn't God, he "had to do it."

A search warrant for his apartment turned up a 9mm Polymer80 handgun with no serial number and a .22 caliber rifle. Investigators also recovered shoes and clothing he wore during the murder as seen on surveillance video.

Bible was also charged Tuesday with first-degree aggravated robbery in connection with an attack Nov. 5 on Nicollet Mall. In that case, a victim flagged down police and said Bible pulled a black semiautomatic handgun on him when asked to empty his pockets.