Man charged in fatal downtown Minneapolis shooting of a 20-year-old

A 30-year-old Brooklyn Park man faces murder charges after he shot and killed a 20-year-old Columbia Heights man in downtown Minneapolis this past weekend.

Hennepin County Court documents indicate that Troy Lierre Fowler faces two counts of second-degree murder. At a minimum, Fowler faces six years in prison if convicted and over 40 as a maximum sentence. His next scheduled court appearance is set for Wednesday afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint, on Saturday, the Minneapolis Police Department responded to the area of a parking ramp east of Hennepin Avenue South in the 3300 block of Sixth Street South in downtown Minneapolis. Their response was due to a gunshot being fired.

A responding officer located a man who had been shot in the back on the ground near the mouth of the parking ramp. The suspect, who was described as a Black man wearing a black shirt, ran from the scene after firing one gunshot.

A nearby officer saw the suspect flee the area, and she pursued him. The suspect was later identified as Fowler. He was eventually caught near a pillar in a parking lot. A gun was found on Fowler, according to the complaint.

The victim, later identified as Mohamed Hussein Hassan, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center and was shortly thereafter pronounced dead. A GoFundMe has been made by the family for funeral costs.

A video of the incident, obtained by authorities by a nearby business, shows at about 3 a.m. on Saturday two males walking eastbound from Hennepin Avenue on the south sidewalk of Sixth Street South, approaching the mouth of the parking ramp at that location. One of the males is noted to be Fowler.

Fowler is seen entering the ramp from the inbound lane of the ramp. The male with him follows Fowler in the ramp and is seen pulling out a handgun from his waist, pointing it into the ramp as they walk in. Hassan’s shoe-tip can be seen to the left of a yellow pillar and under the lower edge of the red "Exit Only" sign. He appears to be looking at his phone at that moment. Then, Fowler pulls out a handgun from his waist as he passes by Hassan and Hassan’s brother, who is nearby.

Hassan, who has a gun pointed at him, begins to raise the flap on a bag that is hanging around his body. The complaint states, Hassan then releases the flap and raises his hands in the air as though "he is surrendering or giving up." Police later found a handgun in the bag Hassan was carrying. However, the gun was never removed from the bag when police found it upon responding to the scene.

At one point, a gun is being pointed both from Hassan’s front and backside. Fowler then fired his weapon at Hassan and then is seen running away on the surveillance footage. Fowler is seen jumping the retaining fence and running up the exit ramp towards Sixth Street South.

Fowler later admitted to police that he shot Hassan. He claimed Hassan "bumped into him" at Union Restaurant earlier that night. However, the victim’s brother gave a different version of what happened at the bar, saying Fowler and the people he was with were (mean) "mugging" his brother, him and the people they were with. He added they had no contact with Fowler or the people he was with at the bar.

The shooting incident happened away from the bar, at the parking ramp, after they had all left the bar at different times but came into contact near the parking ramp. One bullet casing was recovered at the scene.