On the evening of September 24, 2019, a dispute in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota, tragically ended the life of 36-year-old Terry Edwards, a Black / African American male. The incident unfolded around 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Fremont and Mendota streets, where police responded to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers found Edwards with a gunshot wound to his upper torso.
Despite immediate life-saving efforts by the police and medics, he succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
According to information provided by his family, Edwards had gone to a residence on Mendota Street to purchase narcotics. Unhappy with the transaction, he quickly returned, leading to an argument with two or three other men. The altercation escalated, spilling out of the residence and onto the street. A witness reported seeing a man shooting at Edwards as they both ran from the house. Edwards collapsed in the driveway of a home on Fremont Street, and the gunman fled. Investigators at the scene recovered shell casings and five bullets lodged in the ground near the Mendota Street residence.
The investigation swiftly pointed to a suspect, thanks to crucial information from witnesses. Edwards's girlfriend, who was in a car nearby, told police she heard two "pops" and then saw a man she knew as "Fatboy" shooting at Edwards. Another witness also claimed to have seen a man nicknamed "Fatty" fire a gun approximately nine times. Using a photo lineup, Edwards's girlfriend identified "Fatboy" as 38-year-old Contreal Teejuan Bush.
Bush was subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Terry Edwards's death. When questioned by police, Bush stated that he knew people in the Mendota area and had been there earlier in the evening but denied any knowledge of the shooting before requesting a lawyer. Public records indicated that Bush had a history of multiple arrests and convictions for drugs, assault, robbery, and firearms offenses in both Illinois and Minnesota. If convicted of the murder charge, he faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
