Spit on a train platform led police to a murder suspect in Minneapolis
Investigators matched DNA from discarded cigars and a transit card to a man charged in a fatal shooting on the Green Line.
By Larissa Shah ·
Three shots ended a passenger's life on a Minneapolis light rail train last month, but a bottle of spittle left on a platform is how police found the shooter. A criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County Court details how investigators used biological evidence and transit records to identify Jaquan Darrian Edwards, 30, who is now charged with murder for the Oct. 3 incident.
Surveillance video captured the moments leading up to the crime. Edwards boarded the Green Line at U.S. Bank Stadium shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday. The victim boarded at the East Bank station near the University of Minnesota campus and sat across the aisle from him. Within a few stops, the two men began to argue, and the complaint notes that dialogue was exchanged. Shortly after the train left the Stadium Village stop, Edwards fired three times, striking the victim.
The train continued east to St. Paul, where officers responded at the Westgate station. The victim sustained a gunshot wound to the neck and died at the scene despite efforts by first responders. By that time, the gunman had already exited at the Prospect Park stop in Minneapolis. Because the suspect left the city, the investigation was handed to Minneapolis police.
The shooting occurred just hours after the University of Minnesota Gophers defeated the Michigan Wolverines in a major football game. The campus was busy with fans, but the violence on the tracks drew police attention to a specific window of time and location.
Police found DNA from the gunman on the platform at U.S. Bank Stadium. Video showed him spitting extensively before he boarded the train. Officers collected samples of the spittle for testing. They also reviewed transit data and found that the suspect had used a Metro Transit To-Go card to ride a bus before the shooting. That card tracked his movements to a HyVee supermarket and an Advance Auto Parts store in Maplewood.
Store employees helped narrow down the suspect's identity. Security at the HyVee recognized a man in surveillance photos as an employee at the nearby auto parts store. Staff at Advance Auto Parts confirmed that the man in the photos was Jaquan Darrian Edwards. This connection gave police a specific person to investigate, but they still needed a biological match to confirm he was the shooter.
The final piece of evidence came from Edwards' trash. Minneapolis police spoke with White Bear Lake officers who had stopped Edwards earlier in the year for a traffic violation. During that stop, officers observed Edwards smoking a wood-tipped cigar while driving a vehicle registered to his mother. Police later went to his mother's home, where Edwards may have been living, and collected trash that included several wood-tipped cigars.
Laboratory tests matched the DNA from the cigars to the spittle found on the light rail platform. That match confirmed Edwards as the shooter. He was arrested on Monday and is currently being held in Hennepin County Jail. His first court appearance in the murder case is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
