A man is killed in a drive-by shooting Tommy Bardney, 34, a Black man, was sitting in a van outside his home on the 1000 block of Humboldt Avenue North in Minneapolis on the afternoon of April 2, 2013, talking with his wife, Rosie, when a white SUV pulled alongside. In the quiet seconds that followed, a single shot came through the driver's-side window and struck him in the head. First responders arrived after a 3:20 p.m. 911 call reporting a person down in the street, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Just weeks earlier, he had returned to Minneapolis from Mississippi to be closer to his family, a promise he'd been trying to keep. He left behind seven children who gathered with their mother days later at a rain-soaked vigil near the corner of 11th and Humboldt to grieve and call for peace.
Witness accounts first described a white SUV with tinted windows; investigators later asked the public to help identify a white Chevrolet Uplander—believed to be a 2005 to 2008 model, possibly with a rooftop luggage rack—that had pulled up beside the couple's van moments before the shooting. Police said at least two people were inside the vehicle. Crime Stoppers announced a reward of up to $1,000 for information, and detectives publicized tip-line numbers as they worked the case. Despite those appeals, authorities reported no arrests in the days and weeks after the killing, and the case remained under investigation.
