On the evening of February 6, 2020, Tommie McCoy, a 51-year-old Black man from Chicago who had recently moved to Minneapolis and was staying at the Salvation Army, boarded a Metro Transit bus near 1st Avenue and 9th Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by police shows McCoy spoke briefly with 26-year-old Malcolm James Lessley; Lessley then pulled out a handgun and shot McCoy in the face. McCoy died at the scene. A second man was also shot in the head, taken to the hospital in critical condition and expected to survive.

Police arrested Lessley a short time later on 9th Street and Nicollet Mall and recovered a firearm. He was charged with second-degree murder and held on $2 million bail. Reports note that Lessley had been found incompetent to stand trial the year before after an incident in which he was accused of pointing a gun at a cab driver’s head. McCoy’s family described him as a beloved son, brother, father and grandfather who was trying to restart his life; his mother expressed sadness for Lessley and his family reportedly offered apologies to McCoy’s relatives in Chicago.

Are there witnesses or anyone who rode that bus who can share what they saw or heard that night?