Man pleads guilty to murder charge filed for fatal Whittier neighborhood bus shelter shooting
Jose Cipriano Dominguez Credit: Hennepin County Jail
Court documents show a 19-year-old man will be sentenced this spring after pleading guilty to intentional second-degree murder.
According to the guilty plea petition, Jose Cipriano Dominguez entered the plea last week. He is now scheduled to be sentenced on April 10.
As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Dominguez was charged for the death of 31-year-old Derrick Luke Harding-Reyes, who was shot in the head at a bus shelter located near East 24th Street and Nicollet Avenue South on Dec. 21, 2022.
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A court document states investigators were able to find video from nearby businesses and homes that showed almost the entire incident.
According to the criminal complaint, Harding-Reyes was in the bus shelter talking to other patrons when Dominguez got off the bus and walked south to a nearby business vestibule. A short time later, Dominguez walked back toward the shelter, then went inside. Harding-Reyes and Dominguez were seen briefly exchanging words and then, after just a few seconds, Dominguez was seen in the video pulling out a gun, racking the slide and shooting Harding-Reyes.
Investigators also got bus video and records that showed Dominguez paid for his bus ride right before the shooting with a bus pass issued in his name.
Before investigators tracked him down, Dominguez called investigators, the complaint states. In a police interview, he gave them his bus pass, which was in a distinctive wallet, and said nobody else has ever used it. However, he denied committing the murder, saying he was doing dishes and playing video games at home at the time it happened.
Authorities also say bus records and video in the days and weeks before and after the shooting show Dominguez using the same bus pass from the same distinctive wallet he had when he talked to investigators. The complaint adds that when investigators searched his home, several pieces of clothing worn by the man who shot Harding-Reyes were found.