A Blaine man is charged with murder more than six years after a man was shot and killed near the intersection of 30th Avenue North and Penn Avenue North in Minneapolis, prosecutors say.
Melvonte Lee Peterson, who was 29 at the time of the shooting, is charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder, including murder with intent and murder during a drive-by shooting, in a complaint filed October 30.
According to the complaint, officers responded at about 4:23 p.m. on August 31, 2020, after a Shotspotter alert detected four gunshots in the area. Officers found the victim, an adult male, lying on the ground with gunshot wounds to his head and left thigh. A bystander was guarding a 9mm pistol nearby that had not been fired. The victim was transported to North Memorial, where he died at about 5:06 p.m.
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Witnesses reported hearing four to five gunshots and then saw two vehicles, one silver and one black, speed away from the scene. Investigators used city surveillance cameras to track the vehicles back to the Full Stop Gas & Food Station about four blocks away. Surveillance footage showed the black vehicle parked behind a silver Buick Lacrosse with a visible license plate. Investigators determined the Buick had been sold to Melvonte Lee Peterson on June 29, 2020.
The complaint says gas station video captured Peterson getting in and out of the silver Buick, wearing a distinctive yellow hat, white-washed denim and blue and yellow shoes. That same day, Peterson posted photos of himself in the same outfit on his public Facebook page. The video showed Peterson leaving the gas station three to four minutes before the shooting as the driver and sole occupant of the Buick.
Investigators found that an hour before the shooting, a known associate posted a photo with Peterson on Facebook, captioned with a statement about wanting the same person dead. Another man who was in the black SUV told investigators that Peterson asked him to watch Peterson’s gun in the Buick while Peterson went inside the store.
The witness said that after leaving the gas station, he followed Peterson and saw the victim on foot. The witness reported that Peterson’s vehicle suddenly braked and Peterson started shooting.
On September 19, 2020, Saint Paul police arrested another man in possession of a Glock 22 .40 caliber pistol, which ballistics testing later confirmed as the murder weapon. Phone records showed Peterson’s phone was near this man’s home daily during the relevant period. When officers arrested Peterson on October 12, 2020, they seized his phone and found a text message sent two days after the murder asking someone, “you want a 22?“, believed to refer to the Glock 22 pistol.
The FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team determined Peterson’s phone connected to towers consistent with being at both the gas station and the scene of the murder. Investigators also noted that the associate who posted the Facebook photo called Peterson about 10 minutes before the shooting.
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Jurisdictional Context
Hennepin County is Minnesota’s most populous jurisdiction. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office handles felony prosecutions across Minneapolis and 44 other cities; the Fourth Judicial District presides over felony arraignments and trials at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis.
