Suspect charged in deadly shooting at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis
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A 23-year-old man has been charged in connection with a fatal shooting at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Zyere Porter of Minneapolis was charged Friday in Hennepin County with second-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder.
Porter was arrested Thursday when officers carried out a search warrant on the 7800 block of Terrace Road NE in Spring Lake Park. He’s being held at the Hennepin County Jail.
The shooting on June 1 killed 23-year-old Stageina Whiting. Five other people were wounded by gunfire; one suffered life-threatening injuries. Court documents filed Friday said that person is paralyzed and remains in critical condition.
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A sixth person sustained minor injuries in the chaos following the shooting.
According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to a shooting at the park at about 9:30 p.m. June 1 and found the shooting victims. Whiting later died at a hospital.
Investigators learned there was a large birthday party gathering in the park. Surveillance video allegedly showed a Dodge Challenger arrive at the park before any shots were fired. A person who had been in the car later told police he was shot soon after exiting the vehicle.
Video shows the vehicle leave the park and quickly return. Witnesses told police that the vehicle circled the parking lot while a passenger in the car fired a gun into the crowd.
Whiting was a passenger in another vehicle trying to leave the park after the initial gunshots, when she was fatally wounded.
There was other gunfire in the park in the melee. Investigators would later determine at least nine guns were fired, with about 130 casings recovered.
But the complaint alleges “there was a clear grouping of .40 caliber casings that were separate from the rest and consistent with having come from the Challenger, and consistent with having come from the volley of shots that killed (Whiting).”
Investigators located the Challenger on June 3 and recovered a live .40 caliber round and a .40 caliber shell casing. Ballistics testing reportedly confirmed the casing was fired by the same gun that fired the rounds near where Whiting was shot.
The complaint alleges that Porter’s fingerprints were found on the car, and that witnesses told police that Porter was seen in the Challenger shortly after the shooting. Witnesses also allegedly told police that Porter and two other men had gone to Boom Island that night to attack an opposing gang member.
Porter was due to make his initial court appearance on Friday afternoon. He remains in custody at the Hennepin County Jail.
