On the evening of April 8, 2011, a tragic event unfolded inside the break room of a Festival Foods grocery store in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, forever altering the lives of several families. Michael Maurice Habte, a 21-year-old Black / African American male, was spending time with his girlfriend, Abigail Fedeli, in the employee break area of the store where they both worked. Their shift took a horrifying turn when a fellow co-worker, Aaron L.
Parson, entered the room and opened fire.
The sudden violence shattered the mundane atmosphere of the grocery store. Habte was struck by multiple gunshots. He was rushed to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he underwent surgery but ultimately succumbed to his injuries. His girlfriend, Abigail Fedeli, aged 20, was also fatally shot in the neck and died at the scene. The motive for the shooting was determined to be jealousy, as Parson had previously been in a relationship with Fedeli and was reportedly upset about her new relationship with Habte. Friends of Habte described him as a respectful and ambitious young man who was an extremely hard worker with high goals in life. He was a graduate of Hennepin Technical College, holding an Associate of Applied Science degree.
After the shooting, the suspect, Aaron L. Parson, fled the grocery store. A swift police investigation was launched, and authorities were able to track Parson's location using his cell phone. He was located on the Washington Avenue footbridge on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. As police officers approached him, Parson took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death brought a somber end to the active search for the person responsible for the deaths of Michael Habte and Abigail Fedeli, concluding the investigation into the double murder-suicide.
