Mpls police: children ducked while bullets flew over basketball court

According to a complaint filed last Friday in Hennepin County District Court, an altercation on a north Minneapolis basketball court in October of 2012 turned into a shooting which led a group of young children to duck and cover.

The Hennepin County Attorney's office charged 20-year-old August Latimothy Fleming in connection with the shooting. Fleming has previous criminal convictions and is unable to possess a firearm. He was also charged with 2nd degree assault.

Police investigators say Fleming and an unidentified man got into a squabble on a basketball court at Folwell Park on Oct. 3, 2012. Police say surveillance video taken from the park building show that the man attacked Fleming with a knife and cut his face. They say Fleming pulled a gun out of his backpack and chased after the man, firing at least six shots.

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"The video also shows multiple people on the basketball court at the time of the shooting, including children who appear to be elementary school age," reads the complaint. "Police interviewed a coach who was in the park at the time of the shooting. The coach stated that he heard the shots and instructed his team to lie flat on the ground until the shots stopped."

Officers say when they arrived to the park they found "an apparent blood-like substance" on the basketball court, spent shell casings and uncooperative witnesses.

Officers found Fleming a few weeks later with a cut on his face. They swabbed him for DNA and according to the complaint, the sample matched a sample of blood taken from the basketball court.

A spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney's office said prosecutors had to wait until the DNA test was complete before filing charges against Fleming.