Man receives prison sentence for murder charge stemming from Minneapolis shooting

A Brooklyn Center man will spend multiple years behind bars after being convicted of a second-degree murder charge.

Otis Terrell Givens, 46, was sentenced in Hennepin County court Wednesday afternoon.

As previously reported, Givens was charged in a shooting that happened in May of 2021 near the intersection of South Ninth Street and LaSalle Avenue.

According to court records, Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Givens to 306 months (25.5 years) at the St. Cloud prison, where he will also get credit for 493 days he has already served. In addition, records show he must pay more than $3,700 in restitution.

While responding to the scene, officers were told that callers reporting the shooting said a man appeared to be down in that area. When police arrived, they found a man who had been shot, and other responding officers found a woman who had been killed by gunfire in the parking structure.

RELATED: Downtown Minneapolis shooting leaves 1 dead, another injured

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance footage and witness statements showed the victim got into a verbal confrontation with a person identified as “Witness 1” in the alley near the parking garage when a man who had been accompanying the victim displayed a handgun. It goes on to say Witness 1 also drew a handgun and accidentally shot her acquaintance, Witness 2, in the leg.

Witness 1 then began rendering aid to Witness 2, who she had just mistakenly shot. That’s when, according to witnesses, Witness 1 gave the handgun to Givens, who was also present in the alley.

After the shooting of Witness 2, the victim and her companion left the alley and went into the nearby parking garage. Givens followed, and the surveillance video showed that he shot the victim in the back of the head as she tried to run away, the complaint states.

Another person present in the alley, identified as “Witness 3,” said that after the shooting of Witness 2, he heard two additional gunshots and Givens returned to the group and said, “I got at ’em,” referring to him shooting the victim.

The minimum sentence for the charge is three years in jail while the maximum sentence is 40 years.