Woman charged with fatally shooting boyfriend in her Minneapolis home says it was accident

A 39-year-old woman who fatally shot her boyfriend in her southeast Minneapolis home is claiming the gun went off accidentally, according to a criminal complaint.

Janice L. Hawkins-Green was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree manslaughter in connection with the shooting Monday of 36-year-old Mark H. O'Dell in the 2400 block of SE. Cole Avenue.

Hawkins-Green was arrested Monday afternoon soon after the killing and remained jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail ahead of a court hearing Friday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for her.

According to the complaint:

A call to 911 sent police to the home. They said they saw Hawkins-Green and O'Dell's mother sitting on the porch and a man on his back with an apparent gunshot wound to his abdomen.

O'Dell, of Minneapolis, was taken by emergency responders to HCMC and died there.

Hawkins-Green said she and O'Dell were arguing, and the handgun discharged accidentally as she was handing it to him. She said her daughter put the gun under a bed, where police recovered the weapon.

Hawkins-Green's 15-year-old daughter told police her mother told O'Dell to pack up his possessions and leave the house.

Hawkins-Green told police that she and O'Dell had been in a relationship for about two years. She said she went to her vehicle to get his sweatshirt, other items and a gun to give to him.

As they stood on the porch, she explained, she shoved the gun and the sweatshirt toward O'Dell, and it went off.

The gun was equipped with two safeties that are designed to make accidental shootings less likely. Both have to be fully depressed before it will fire, the complaint explained.

During a second interview, Hawkins-Green acknowledged holding the gun by the grip with her finger on the trigger as the barrel was pointed at O'Dell when it fired.