On February 11, 2017, 18-year-old Allie Campbell from St. Cloud, Minnesota, was found dead at the Quality Inn Motel in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis. The police responded to a report of someone lying on the floor in room 225. Upon arrival, they discovered Campbell on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Surveillance footage from the motel showed Campbell and a 20-year-old man named Cedric Lamar Smith from Brooklyn Park entering the motel
lobby around 8:17 p.m. Approximately thirteen minutes later, Smith and two other individuals were seen running down a staircase near room 225. Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. One of the men who fled the room informed the police that he had been selling marijuana from the motel room that day. He claimed that a shot was fired in the bathroom while Smith and Campbell were inside. Smith allegedly told him that Campbell had accidentally shot herself while playing with a gun.
Smith was later charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, which was connected to Campbell's death. In conversations recorded while Smith was in a squad car, he mentioned that he had warned Campbell not to play with the gun and that it discharged when he jumped towards her. He also instructed the others to stick to the same story.
Initially, six people were arrested in connection with the incident, but five were released shortly after. One individual remained in custody on a parole violation but was not charged with the homicide. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office continued to review the case.
