Police: Man arrested in St. Cloud in fatal shooting of 18-year-old sailor in San Diego

A man alleged to have fatally shot a sailor outside a San Diego nightclub was tracked down many weeks later and arrested in his hometown of St. Cloud, according to law enforcement in California and Minnesota.

Ta’Kari Terell Benness, 20, was arrested Wednesday in St. Cloud on a warrant from a San Diego County judge alleging that he killed 18-year-old Albert Soto of New York City on Aug. 31.

Benness remains held in the Stearns County jail. Court documents show that he has waived his right to challenge extradition to California.

According to police in San Diego and court records:

Gunfire about 12:50 a.m. sent police in San Diego to the city’s East Village, where they found Soto with at least one gunshot wound. Emergency responders took him to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Police investigators determined that Soto, who was stationed in San Diego, and his friends clashed with a group of men inside a nightclub.

Both groups were asked by club staff to leave the nightspot, and they continued arguing outside for about 30 minutes. At one point, Benness walked away and Soto followed. That’s when Benness drew a gun and shot Soto twice, according to court records.

Benness and the three others with him fled on foot, and Benness shortly afterward took a Greyhound bus back to St. Cloud.

The investigators identified Benness as the shooter and the others as well “through a combination of public and private security footage, license plate readers, witness interviews, and tireless investigative work,” a statement from San Diego police read.

About 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, St. Cloud police found Benness and arrested him while he was a passenger in a vehicle downtown at N. 2nd Street and 10th Avenue N.

Atoria Elem told Channel 10-TV in San Diego that Soto was her cousin and was an operations specialist seaman apprentice assigned to the destroyer USS Pinckney.

“He had the option to basically go to college, join training school. However, he was very adamant about joining the Navy to serve his country,” Elem added.

In a posting on an online fundraising page that Elem initiated on behalf of the family, she wrote, “Albert was training in the Navy in California, away from his hometown. A casual night out resulted in him losing his life to gun violence.”