Brooklyn Center man charged with murder in Minneapolis parking garage shooting

A Brooklyn Center man was charged with murder in a shooting that took place in a Minneapolis parking garage on May 8, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Otis Givens, 45, was charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a female victim.

According to the criminal complaint, on May 8, officers were dispatched on a report of a shooting near the intersection of South Ninth Street and LaSalle Avenue in Minneapolis. After treating Witness 2, who had been shot in the leg in an alley outside the parking garage, officers found the deceased female victim on the first floor of a parking garage.

Surveillance footage and witness statements revealed that the victim got into a verbal confrontation with Witness 1 in the alley near the parking garage, when a man who had been accompanying the victim displayed a handgun. Witness 1 then also drew a handgun, and accidentally shot her acquaintance, Witness 2, in the leg, the complaint states.

Witness 1 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, the complaint states.

After the shooting of Witness 2, the victim and her companion left the alley and went into the nearby parking garage. Givens followed, and 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, Witness 3, said that after the shooting of Witness 2, he heard two additional shots, and Givens returned to the group and said, “I got at ‘em,” referring to him shooting the victim.

Givens was arrested on May 10 and is currently being held in the Hennepin County Jail.

View the criminal complaint against Givens (PDF).