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Man charged with 1st degree murder in alleged gang-related tobacco store shooting
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Man charged with 1st degree murder in alleged gang-related tobacco store shooting

A Minneapolis man accused of fatally shooting two men and injuring a third in a Dinkytown tobacco shop last year now faces elevated criminal charges.

A Hennepin County grand jury returned an indictment against Maleek Jabril Conley on 13 criminal charges, including counts of first and second degree murder, first and second degree attempted murder, and second degree assault.

Conley, 26, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

A criminal complaint alleges that Conley walked into Royal Cigar and Tobacco near the corner of 14th Avenue Southeast and Fourth Street Southeast around 2 a.m. on Dec. 3 and shot two customers and a store employee. By the time Minneapolis police arrived, the two customers — 24-year-old Bryson Haskell and Jamartre Sanders — were dead.

Video of the shooting showed Conley shooting Haskell and Sanders directly in the head at close range. He shot at a third customer but missed, hitting the store employee in the back, the complaint states.

The employee pressed a panic button, locking everyone inside the store, and the video then shows Conley pulling on the glass door and crawling out, according to the complaint. Four other men followed Conley to a getaway car, a stolen Kia, and drove off.

Conley and the others in the Kia were identified as members or associates of the “Crazi Boyz” street gang, which operates in south Minneapolis. The two victims, Haskell and Sanders, were known to be involved with the rival “Lowz” gang in north Minneapolis.

A warrant was issued for Conley’s arrest on Dec. 8, and he was taken into custody on March 4, online court records show. He remains in the Hennepin County Jail on $2 million bail.

A jury trial was originally scheduled to begin Nov. 4, but the court pushed that date back. Although he has a court hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon, a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9.