Charges: Minneapolis man followed victim from restaurant, fatally shot him at traffic light

A Minneapolis man is charged with murder after another man was found shot to death in a vehicle.

Ofelio Campos Garcia, 42, is charged with second-degree murder.

According to a criminal complaint, Minneapolis police responded to a report of a person shot in their vehicle near Chicago Avenue South and East Lake Street at about 2:08 a.m. on Aug. 9. When they arrived, officers found a man already dead with gunshot wounds to his head and face. An autopsy confirmed the victim died from gunshot wounds.

During an investigation, officers learned the victim had been at El Mariachi Restaurant, located at 2728 Nicollet Avenue, before his death. Surveillance video showed the man exiting the restaurant, getting in his vehicle and driving away, the complaint states, and a pickup truck is then seen following the victim’s vehicle.

When both vehicles were in the left turn lane on Chicago Avenue, waiting to turn left onto Lake Street, surveillance video shows the driver of the pickup truck get out, approach the driver’s side of the victim’s vehicle and fire two gunshots at the victim. The suspect then got back into his truck and drove south on Chicago Avenue.

Investigators tracked the suspect’s vehicle and located it in the driveway of a home in the 3500 block of Knox Avenue North on Aug. 23. As the truck was being towed, Garcia approached officers and said it was his truck, noting that he’s the only one who drives it. Officers obtained Garcia’s phone number and, through a search warrant, learned that he was in the area of the shooting when it occurred on Aug. 9.

Garcia later told police he was in the parking lot of El Mariachi Restaurant on Aug. 9 and admitted that the truck shown on surveillance video is his truck but didn’t explain why he was there or why he followed the victim’s vehicle, according to the complaint.

Garcia remains in custody.