Lafayette Anthony Collaso, 30, a Black male from Minneapolis, was shot and killed on the evening of July 15, 2025, on the 1500 block of 11th Avenue South in the Elliot Park neighborhood. First officers found him with life-threatening wounds on the sidewalk; despite immediate aid, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner later identified him and ruled his death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to the chest.
Investigators said the violence grew out of a confrontation among people who knew one another, a street-side dispute that flared into gunfire just after 6:20 p.m. Witness accounts and early police statements describe a brief fight that broke the calm of a summer evening, sending neighbors to their windows and leaving evidence technicians to mark shell casings under the glow of squad-car lights.
Within days, prosecutors charged 20-year-old Deshon Gregory with second-degree murder and three counts of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the shooting that killed Collaso. A criminal complaint referenced by reporters says the conflict began with an argument over $40 involving a woman Gregory knew, escalated when threats were made, and ended when a shooter backed into the street and fired multiple rounds toward a home and front yard where several people had gathered. Investigators recovered at least eleven 9mm shell casings, and a warrant was issued; at the time of those reports, Gregory remained at large with bail set at $1.5 million if taken into custody.
Authorities publicly named Collaso the next day, and local coverage fixed the scene as a residential block a short walk from downtown, where police tape, evidence markers, and squad cars drew a crowd into a hush. The case remained active as detectives sought more witnesses and evidence, asking anyone with information to come forward while the community mourned a life cut short.
