Prosecutors: Man charged in fatal shooting had staged 2 other ambushes at same spot

A man charged with shooting and killing a man last month outside a south Minneapolis tobacco shop had allegedly staged two other shootings at the same place the week before, court records show.

Darius Dontay Sharp Jr., 24, is charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection with a Sept. 22 shooting outside Net Tobacco on the corner of Nicollet Avenue and 19th Street, according to documents filed in Hennepin County Court on Thursday.

Prosecutors say the victim, identified as 24-year-old Brenell Michael Green, was fatally wounded after a gunman fired several rounds at him that morning outside Net Tobacco. A store employee told police the shooter looked like a man who was beaten up in the store on Sept. 16 and was involved in a shooting later that day.

Investigators looked at surveillance footage from Sept. 16 that shows Sharp getting attacked by a “larger-build” man in the store. Then, two hours later, Sharp is seen “peeking out from an alleyway” near the tobacco shop before rounding the corner and firing roughly 20 shots at the man who beat him earlier in the day. A crowd of other people was also present, but no one was hit, the complaint states.

The next day, surveillance footage shows another shooting allegedly involving Sharp “with the exact same conduct.” A man is seen emerging from the alley before firing nine rounds at a group of people outside Net Tobacco. The alleged target of the previous day’s shooting was standing there, but another man was shot in the leg.

Shell casings found at all three shooting scenes matched up, leading investigators to believe they were all fired from the same gun.

Police arrested Sharp on Monday, and he remains in custody at the Hennepin County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail. He is due to appear before a judge Friday afternoon.