A Woodbury man is accused of fatally shooting a Minneapolis man in the parking lot of a bar in the Como neighborhood in August.
Kenwan Deshawn Hunter, 27, was charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder (with intent and while committing a felony) and one count of illegally possessing a firearm. According to the charges, Hunter shot and killed Glenn Danen Smith, 27, after Smith and another man had been fighting.
About 12:50 a.m. Aug. 16, St. Paul police officers responded to Ted’s Recreation at 1084 Larpenteur Ave. and found two people attempting to help Smith who was in the back seat of a Buick LaCrosse. Smith was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene.
From multiple witnesses and video, police pieced together the following events:
Smith and a friend drove to Minneapolis earlier that night to buy marijuana. Smith asked his friend to drop him off at Ted’s. When the friend returned to pick Smith up, Smith was drinking with Hunter and another man identified as Tae Loc.
Smith and Tae Loc went outside to fight. When Smith’s friend tried to intervene, Smith told him Tae Loc was his cousin and to let them fight.
When they finished fighting, Smith got into the Buick to leave, then began yelling to Hunter to give him back something that belonged to him. Smith went to Hunter’s car and retrieved a gun. As Smith’s friend was backing the car out of the parking space, gunfire erupted. Smith yelled that he was hit and climbed into the backseat. Smith’s friend got out of the car and fled the scene, taking Smith’s gun with him. He later turned it in to police.
Witnesses told police they believed Smith and Hunter were shooting at each other. According to the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office, Smith died from a gunshot wound to his chest. Smith had two felony convictions for illegally possessing a firearm.
Hunter has seven prior felony convictions for robbery. On Feb. 5, 2016, he was convicted of aggravated second-degree robbery after he stole items from a Menards on University Avenue and then fought the security guard who tried to stop him. In March 2016, he was convicted of five counts of aggravated second-degree robbery in Hennepin County District Court after he and an accomplice approached five different victims in Minneapolis, held a gun to them and robbed them.
According to that complaint, authorities found him to pose “an obvious danger to public safety if he is out of custody.”
According to the plea agreement for the 2016 convictions, Hunter was sentenced by Hennepin County Judge Hilary Caligiuri on Feb. 16, 2017, to 64 months in prison (or a little over five years) with 379 days credited for time served.
As of Friday evening, Hunter was in custody at the Ramsey County Detention Center. He was being held on a $1 million bond. No attorney was listed for him.
