Darnell Allen Watkins, a 40-year-old Black man from Minneapolis, was shot multiple times just after 1 a.m. on September 8, 2025, in the city's Ventura Village neighborhood. Metro Transit officers near Chicago and Franklin avenues reported hearing the gunfire; minutes later, police found the 40-year-old male in the front yard of a home on the 1900 block of Elliot Avenue South. Officers tried to save him on the lawn, but the 40-year-old male died at the scene.
By the next day, the medical examiner publicly identified him and confirmed the manner of death as homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds, pinpointing the location of injury and death at 1916 Elliot Avenue.
In the hours that followed, investigators taped off the block and began the slow work of piecing together what had happened on that front lawn—an overnight killing that marked another grim entry in the city's late-summer ledger of violence. Police described the victim as a man in his 40s, found outdoors with life-threatening wounds; the 40-year-old male never made it to the hospital. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's release later set the stark details in print: age 40, male, cause “multiple gunshot wounds,” homicide, with Minneapolis Police as the investigating agency.
As of the initial public updates, there were no arrests. Detectives asked for leads and continued canvassing for witnesses and video, indicating they were still seeking the person or people responsible. Local outlets reiterated that no one was in custody in the immediate aftermath, and that investigators were working to determine what led to the gunfire that killed the 40-year-old male in the yard of the Elliot Avenue home.
