A Minneapolis man murdered an acquaintance, stole the dead man’s vehicle and used it to perpetrate a drive-by shooting that targeted a Department of Corrections officer at a funeral, according to two criminal complaints on file with the Hennepin County District Court.
The same man is also suspected of killing 61-year-old Teresa Bear Ribs in her own backyard on August 9 as she cared for her grandchildren in an unrelated incident, per the Pioneer Press.
Christoper Malik Todd, 19, is accused of shooting an acquaintance, Ronald Junior Smith, 21, in the head and stealing his recently purchased Dodge Charger on August 14. The shooting occurred “in the parking ramp of a Minneapolis Hotel [sic],” according to a criminal complaint.
EMTs and police were called to the apparent murder scene after a woman found a man dead on the floor of the parking garage with blood streaming from a bullet wound in the side of his head.
Once apprehended, Todd told officers that he didn’t shoot Smith. Instead, he said another Dodge Charger had pulled alongside Smith’s while Todd and Smith were sitting in the parking garage. Todd claimed that it was the occupant of the white Charger who shot Smith, prompting him to then remove Smith’s dead body from his vehicle and drive away without performing any life-saving measures or calling 911.
Police believe this story to be untrue given a lack of video evidence of a white Charger in the parking garage, and the fact that the angle from which Todd claims the white Charger fired is not conducive to the manner in which Smith was shot, according to the complaint.
One week later on August 21, Todd and his brother, Zeontae Todd, 23, had Maurice June, 31, drive them in Smith’s stolen Charger to an ongoing funeral at Hillside Cemetery in St. Anthony, states a second criminal complaint. June was also present when Todd allegedly killed 61-year-old Ribs.
Once there, Christopher Todd fired multiple shots at a man whom he thought was a member of the “Native Mob” gang sitting in another car. The man actually turned out to be a member of a Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) Fugitive Apprehension Unit that was surveying the funeral.
A vehicle chase ensued and concluded “near the intersection of 39th Avenue East and Stinson Blvd,” after the Todd brothers and June crashed their stolen vehicle.
Once in police custody, Todd told officers that it was actually June, not him, who fired on the DOC officer. June disputes this claim.
June also admitted that he was in possession of a phone originally owned by a victim in another recent homicide, per the complaint.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
