Charges: Shooter struck downtown Minneapolis bystander, then ran

Delorien Chatman was fighting with another man in downtown Minneapolis on Aug. 22 when he was knocked to the ground then rose, pulled out a gun and fired a bullet that wounded an innocent bystander, Hennepin County prosecutors said Monday.

Minneapolis police identified Chatman, 28, from eyewitness accounts and surveillance video recorded near the scene, according to the criminal complaint. Chatman, of St. Paul has been charged with first-degree and second-degree assault and with illegal possession of a gun.

The shooting victim required emergency surgery and while he survived "he lost some of his large intestine, he has a hole in his colon and the bullet landed just an inch away from his spine," the complaint said.

In 2012, Chatman was accused of shooting and wounding another man. He pleaded guilty to being a prohibited person with a firearm and was sentenced to five years in prison. Chatman was still on parole for that conviction at the time of last week's shooting, according to the complaint.

A few days before the bystander shooting, two people were struck by gunfire outside a downtown nightclub.

The police department has responded by making uniformed police presence more visible. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has said the department is deploying more bike and horse mounted patrols downtown.