Three charged in deadly Minneapolis shooting; suspect in quadruple homicide makes court appearance
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Three people are facing charges stemming from a shooting in Minneapolis last week which left one person dead.
Jose Vasquez-Rodriguez, 22, of Minneapolis and Victor Vazquez-Rodriguez, 20, of Hayward, Wis., are charged in the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Tiago Antonio Gilbert of Minneapolis.
Officers responded to the shooting near Cedar and Hiawatha avenues around 1 p.m. Wednesday. According to court documents, witnesses reported that two suspects fired at Gilbert while he and his girlfriend were on the sidewalk next to their parked car. His girlfriend told officers their young children were in the back seat.
A witness told police the suspects got into a car and fled the scene after the shooting. Another person — Raphael Rodriguez, 35, of Columbia Heights — allegedly drove the other two suspects away. Rodriguez is charged with aiding an offender.
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Gilbert was pronounced dead at the scene. The medical examiner said he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Arrest warrants are out for the three people charged; they are not yet in custody.
It was the second shooting in less than 24 hours in the neighborhood. The night before, five people were shot in a car near the corner of 25th and Bloomington; only one of those victims survived. A suspect in that quadruple homicide was arrested last week and made his first court appearance on Monday.
James Duane Ortley faces four counts of murder in the deaths of Evan Denny, 27; Merelle White, 20; Joseph Goodwin, 17; and LeRas Rainey, 28.
Ortley is also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of another 20-year-old woman who was in the vehicle with the other victims. Despite suffering serious injuries, prosecutors said that she spoke with investigators and identified Ortley as the shooter.
Ortley, 34, did not enter a plea Monday. He appeared in court wearing a dark green suicide prevention gown rather than a standard-issue orange jail uniform. He spoke briefly to confirm his name and date of birth, and said he has no permanent address.
Hennepin County Judge Maximillia Utley kept Ortley’s bond at $2 million and scheduled his next hearing for June 25. Ortley remains jailed.
After the hearing, Rainey’s father Les Robinson told reporters that he last saw his son the evening before he was killed.
“He left the house real happy,” Robinson said. “He was going to visit his friends, and told us he’d be home in a couple hours. Never came back.”
Robinson said Rainey moved to Minneapolis from the Red Lake Reservation several years ago and did not know Ortley. Robinson said that he does not know what may have motivated Ortley’s alleged actions.
Authorities have said all four of the victims were Native. Police Chief Brian O’Hara said last week that investigators believed the Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon shootings were connected. But the charging documents do not give any details about a possible connection.
