Teen charged with murders in Minneapolis, St. Paul, drive-by shooting of corrections officer
Hennepin County Jail
A 19-year-old Minneapolis man is accused of killing two people in separate incidents, and then using one of the victim's vehicles in a drive-by shooting of an undercover corrections officer at a funeral.
Christopher M. Todd is charged in Hennepin County with second-degree murder in the death of Ronald Junior Smith, 21, of St. Cloud, on Aug. 14 and second-degree attempted murder in connection to a drive-by shooting on Aug. 21.
He's also charged with second-degree murder in Ramsey County in the death of Teresa A. Bear Ribs, 61, who was shot dead at point blank range while watching her three grandchildren in St. Paul on Aug. 19.
According to the criminal complaints for the latter incident, Todd had turned up at Bear Ribs' home to confront her daughter, who he wanted to question about the death of Shane Boswell, 23, a friend of his who was recently killed during a break-in in Minneapolis, and who was dating Bear Ribs' daughter.
Bear Ribs was babysitting her three granddaughters at the time, and was on the phone with her husband when she answered a knock at the door from Todd. She Todd that her daughter wasn't in the house but at the store, and was heard on the phone saying "What are you doing?" before the line went dead.
She was later found with a gunshot wound to her head by her returning daughter.
The daughter told police that her boyfriend had been mixed up in some "bad things" and believed the people involved in Boswell's crimes and killing "were trying to shoot her," but instead killed her grandmother.
Todd has been charged with 2nd-degree murder in Ramsey County for the shooting of Bear Ribs, and was also charged Tuesday with the fatal shooting of Smith five days earlier.
According to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, Smith was found dead around 6 p.m. with a gunshot wound in the parking ramp at 425 7th St. in downtown Minneapolis.
Surveillance video showed Smith with an unidentified man in the ramp shortly before the killing, and police linked the unidentified person to Todd when they showed the surveillance footage to a witness in the Bear Ribs murder, who identified the man by Todd's street name of "Criddy."
When initially questioned about Smith's murder, Todd claimed he didn't know Smith but was sitting in Smith's Dodge Charger when "another car entered the ramp and someone from the car shot Smith."
Todd said he was "so overcome by emotion that he cried" and pulled Smith's body onto the ramp floor, before driving off in his Charger. An investigation found this "could not have happened the way Todd described."
Furthermore, Todd and two others drove Smith's Charger to a funeral at Hillside Cemetery in St. Anthony on Aug. 21, when Todd allegedly opened fire at who he suspected was a member of the Native Mob sitting in a Jeep, but who was actually an undercover corrections officer surveilling the funeral.
Todd and the two others were subsequently arrested after a chase ended with a crash at Stinson Boulevard and 39th Avenue East.
