Victims in quadruple homicide identified; suspect arrested and charged

Authorities released more details about a shooting this week that claimed the lives of four people. Police arrested a suspect Thursday, and Hennepin County prosecutors based their criminal complaint partly on the eyewitness account of a fifth victim who survived a gunshot wound to her face.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner identified three of the victims Friday. Joseph Douglas Goodwin, 17, of Minneapolis, Merelle Joan White, 20, of Red Lake, and Evan Ramon Denny, 27, of St. Paul died of gunshot wounds near the corner of 25th Street East and Bloomington Avenue around midnight on Tuesday. All were Native American.

A 28-year-old man who died Thursday has not yet been publicly identified.

Authorities also identified the victim of a second shooting Wednesday afternoon that police believe was connected to the first. Tiago Antonio Gilbert, 34, of Minneapolis died of multiple gunshot wounds outside Mino-Bimaadiziwin Apartments on Cedar Avenue South. The medical examiner said Gilbert was also Native American.

Minneapolis Police chief Brian O'Hara said soon after the Wednesday incident that one of the shooter's rounds went through a nearby vehicle and narrowly missed an infant and toddler who were sitting inside.

Minneapolis police announced an arrest in the case on Thursday. An FBI SWAT team and a U.S. Marshals Service task force arrested James Duane Ortley in connection with the Tuesday shooting. Police said Ortley, 34, was taken into custody in the city’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood without incident.

Ortley is charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder. His first court appearance had been set for Friday, but it was moved to Monday to allow prosecutors time to amend the original criminal complaint to account for the death of the fourth victim.

Investigators do not suspect Ortley in Gilbert’s death and said the shooting may have been in retaliation for the Tuesday killings.

“This is a significant step forward in what has been an intense and fast-moving investigation into the most violent incident this year,” O’Hara said in a statement early Friday.

According to charging documents, a surviving victim told officers that Ortley had been in a car with all five victims. He allegedly shot the others in the car “execution-style” in their heads, then left the scene on foot. Investigators said they obtained surveillance video that shows one person leaving the car shortly before police arrived.

According to court documents, victims’ family members told officers that Ortley was a friend of some of the victims. The injured survivor told police that Ortley was the sole shooter.

Prosecutors say that in interviews with law enforcement related to previous investigations, Ortley had said he was part of a street gang operating in south Minneapolis. Investigators said they believe Tuesday’s shooting was gang-related, and that Ortley is associated with the Native Mob group.

Ortley is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. He was barred from owning a gun after a previous felony conviction.

The quadruple homicide was followed by two more fatal shootings on Wednesday, including the one that killed Gilbert. At about 7:45 p.m., officers responded to another shooting near Lake Street and 15th Avenue South which O’Hara said was not related to the others. The medical examiner identified Derrick Lamont Ewing, 51, of Minneapolis as the victim, and said he died later than night.

The city’s Native American community canceled celebrations that had been planned for Thursday to mark the start of American Indian Month. Instead, residents gathered for a community prayer at a park near the scenes of the shootings.

Rev. Joan Conroy, who serves as senior pastor at All Nations Indian Church two blocks from the scene of the Tuesday shooting, said she and others in the community are helping to support families in south Minneapolis who are mourning their loved ones.

"We had a number of people, I would say probably about 12 people, come through so far this morning and just sit, process what's happening and go out to the fire, the sacred fire pit, and have some prayers," Conroy said Friday. "We've had a couple of police officers come in and do the same and go out and pray."

Police say more officers are on patrol in the neighborhood following the string of violence. Tribal leaders said in statements that they’re working with the city to heighten security in the area as the investigation continues.

Suspect had a violent past

Ortley has an extensive criminal record. In 2007, when he was 17, a Ramsey County juvenile court judge found him delinquent for motor vehicle theft. A year and a half later, he was sent to prison after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery.

In 2013, Ortley landed back behind bars for fleeing police in a motor vehicle, a felony. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, and a judge handed him a five-year sentence.

Then in 2021, Ortley pleaded guilty to second degree assault for stabbing a man in the back outside a bar in Virginia, Minn. A St. Louis County judge gave Ortley a suspended sentence and five years of supervised probation.

Court documents show that Ortley had just over a year left on his probation in that case when authorities charged him in connection with the quadruple homicide in Minneapolis.

Hennepin County jail records show that Ortley was booked into the facility on Feb. 17 after police suspected him of taking part in an early morning violent crime spree with several other people a week earlier, but he was released without charges.

“Our office thoroughly reviewed the case submission and determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Ortley in connection with those incidents,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday.

According to court documents, Joseph Goodwin, the 17-year-old whom Ortley allegedly killed on Tuesday, had been charged in juvenile court with burglary and aiding and abetting second-degree assault in connection with the February crime spree for which a second juvenile and another adult were also arrested.

Prosecutors say the second juvenile shot and wounded a man on 25th Avenue South after witnessing them break into a neighboring garage. Fifteen minutes later, the group allegedly carjacked a man at gunpoint at a gas station on 34th Avenue South before shooting and wounding a third victim during a robbery attempt near 32nd Street and Hiawatha Avenue.

Goodwin was ordered to appear in juvenile court for a May 8 hearing before his life was cut short.

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