In the early hours of a Sunday morning in Minot, North Dakota, the life of 29-year-old Dominick Stephens, a Black/African American male, was tragically cut short. On January 12, 2020, Stephens was driving his white Chevrolet Impala near the Minot State University Dome when gunshots shattered the quiet of the morning. Having been shot twice in the back from a distance, he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a boulder. First responders found him slumped over the wheel and unresponsive.
Stephens was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. A male passenger in the car, Patrick Bost, 28, was unharmed but appeared to have been in a fight earlier that morning.
The investigation into Stephens' death revealed a preceding altercation at the Expressway Suites hotel. Bost was reportedly involved in a fight with a man identified as Donald Cooper Jr. over a woman. Later, a silver Ford Escape, allegedly driven by a man named Lee with Cooper and another individual named Dennis as passengers, pursued Stephens' vehicle. It is believed that Cooper and Dennis were the individuals who fired the shots at the car Stephens was driving. Following the shooting, Lee drove to a trailer court where Cooper and Dennis exited the vehicle with the firearms.
In the aftermath of the shooting, an individual named Sheridan Charlene Simms, 30, was apprehended in Las Vegas. She faced charges of hindering law enforcement and child neglect. Authorities accused Simms of assisting the primary murder suspect, Donald Cooper Jr., in his attempt to flee the state. She was also accused of abandoning her four children. Police believed there were multiple people in the community who had knowledge of the events leading to Stephens' death and urged them to come forward. The investigation was aided by tips from the public and surveillance footage from homes in the area.
