Allie Campbell was 18 when she was found dead on February 11, 2017, on the bathroom floor of room 225 at the Quality Inn Motel in Brooklyn Center. Police were called after a report of someone lying on the floor; she was pronounced dead at the scene in a pool of blood. Witnesses heard a loud bang between about 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Surveillance shows Campbell and 20-year-old Cedric Lamar Smith entering the motel lobby about 8:17 p.m.; roughly thirteen minutes later Smith and two others ran down a stairwell near room 225. One man who fled later told police he had been selling marijuana from the room and said a shot was fired in the bathroom while Smith and Campbell were inside. That man said Smith told him Campbell accidentally shot herself while playing with a gun.

Smith was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm linked to Campbell’s death. Recorded comments from Smith in a squad car include him saying he warned Campbell not to play with the gun, that it discharged when he jumped toward her, and instructing others to stick to the same story. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office was reviewing the case.