A 41-year-old Minnesota man hid in the bushes outside his ex-girlfriend’s Minneapolis home on the night of July 4 and, after a brief confrontation, shot her new boyfriend in the stomach, leaving him to die on the sidewalk, according to two charges of second-degree murder filed in Hennepin County Friday.
Ryan Deshawn Taylor was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon at the Hennepin County jail, where he’s currently being held with bail set at $1 million.
Minneapolis police responded to the shooting call on the 1300 block of Olson Memorial Highway just after midnight on July 5 to find the victim, later identified as 40-year-old William Lamont Hudson, unresponsive and bleeding out. Hudson was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A witness told prosecutors she had known Taylor for over a decade and had a “casual” romantic relationship with him in the past. The two had been at a Fourth of July barbecue together earlier in the day. Afterward he’d dropped her off at her apartment building and she’d met up with Hudson.
Close to midnight, she and Hudson were walking near her building when she spotted Taylor ducked behind the bushes wearing all black and a COVID mask. She and Hudson turned around, and Taylor leapt out toward them. When the woman threatened to call police, Taylor replied, according to charges, “You’re going to call who?” He pulled a gun from his hoodie pocket, fired into Hudson’s stomach and ran away, according to the charges.
After the witness identified Taylor, police collected surveillance video showing him returning home just minutes after the shooting, a handgun holstered on his hip, the charges state.
Taylor told police the witness had “toyed with him” over the years, according to the charges. He claimed she had invited him over to her place that night, and “he admitted encountering [Hudson] there and admitted he shot him,” according to the charges. Police found the gun in a search of his home.
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