In the early morning hours of August 5, 2017, the life of 25-year-old Shane Lamont Webb, a Black male, was cut short in a burst of gunfire in a Minneapolis, Minnesota parking lot. The incident, which occurred just before 3 a.m. on the 1100 block of Broadway Avenue West, left Webb dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head. Another woman was also injured in the shooting, suffering a gunshot wound to the arm, but was expected to survive.
The shooting was not a random act of
violence but rather a targeted attack rooted in a violent gang war plaguing North Minneapolis. Webb was identified as a member of the Tre Tre Crips, a rival gang to the 1-9 Block Dipset Gang. The man who fired the fatal shot was 31-year-old Hakeem Malik Dontae Flax, a known "shooter" for the 1-9 Block Dipset Gang whose role was to protect the gang's drug trafficking operations and target rivals. The shooting was one of many violent encounters between the warring gangs, who were in a dispute over territory and retaliation for previous acts of violence.
Following an investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Hakeem Malik Dontae Flax was arrested in connection with Webb's death. The case was prosecuted at the federal level, and in February 2019, a federal jury convicted Flax on several charges, including conspiracy to distribute heroin, conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of that crime. For his role in the violent drug trafficking conspiracy that led to the death of Shane Lamont Webb, Flax was sentenced to 220 months in federal prison. His conviction and sentence were later upheld after an appeal.
