Jury convicts Minneapolis man of murder

A Minneapolis man has been found guilty of second-degree murder, court records show.

40-year-old Deandre Dontae Turner was convicted by a jury on Wednesday for one count of second-degree murder in Hennepin County Court.

Turner was charged with the death of 37-year-old AJ “Drew” McGinley, who was fatally shot in 2021.

According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a reported shooting just before 9 p.m. on June 30, 2021, outside the Elks Lodge at North Plymouth Avenue and Knox Avenue. The victim, later identified as McGinley, was found dead outside the club. An autopsy determined he was shot five times.

Investigators learned that McGinley had gathered with dozens of others at a vigil for an acquaintance who had died recently. Many of the people at the vigil were members of the Vice Lords street gang, the complaint states.

Surveillance video obtained by police shows that McGinley got into a brief fight with other males at the vigil. He fell to the ground but stood back up, put his hands in the air and walked away. The video then shows a man walking up behind McGinley before aiming a gun and shooting him several times at close range, causing McGinley to fall over and the crowd to scatter, the complaint says.

The video then shows the shooter getting into the passenger side of a silver vehicle and fleeing from the scene.

Police talked to a witness who said he saw McGinley get shot and identified the shooter as Turner — who the witness said he had known for many years. The witness said someone else had shot McGinley in the leg during the altercation leading up to the fatal shooting but that McGinley was still able to walk away before Turner shot him in the back.

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The complaint states that police were also able to track down the driver of the silver vehicle that took the shooter away from the Elks Lodge. That witness admitted to driving the vehicle that night but said he did not see who shot McGinley during the second round of gunfire. He told police that as he was driving away after the shooting, Turner approached his vehicle and asked him to drop him off on Golden Valley Road.

The driver recalled that Turner kept his right hand in his front right pants pocket for the duration of the car ride. Turner’s hand remained in his pocket even after the driver dropped him off, the complaint states. Later, someone called the witness to tell him Turner was the shooter.

Turner is set to be sentenced on Aug. 31 at 1 p.m.