A Minneapolis woman has been charged in a July shooting outside Reign Nightclub that wounded nine people, in what prosecutors call a retaliatory attack for an earlier assault on her boyfriend.
Veronica Marie Brown, 21, was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with drive-by shooting toward a person and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
The shooting happened in the early morning hours of July 19 outside the Uptown nightclub. Nine people, seven men and two women ages 18 to 27, were shot, and two of them suffered life-threatening injuries, according to police.
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According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video shows shots fired from the passenger side of a black Infiniti with no front license plate while about 100 people stood outside the club. Investigators found spent casings, live cartridges and part of a magazine, and determined that four guns had been fired.
Police traced the Infiniti to its registered owner, who told officers she had sold the car to Brown through Facebook. Video recovered after the shooting shows Brown in the passenger seat with her boyfriend also in the car, and Brown’s DNA is included in a mixture found on evidence from the scene, the complaint says. Brown told investigators she did not remember buying the car.
Investigators believe the shooting was retaliation for an assault on Brown’s boyfriend the night before at Vanquish Nightclub in downtown Minneapolis. Court records say several of the people shot outside Reign took part in that assault.
“This was an act of extreme violence that injured numerous people and my thoughts are with everyone affected as they continue their recovery,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “We believe this was a retaliatory attack for a previous assault.”
Police first arrested Brown in August but released her the next day because there was not enough evidence at the time to present charges, according to police. She was arrested again Monday by Minneapolis police and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Prosecutors say more charges may be added, including counts for each person who was shot, as additional medical records come in. Bail was set at $250,000, according to jail records, and her first court appearance was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
