Charges: 2 men followed, assaulted man outside Pizza Luce in downtown Mpls.
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Two men have been charged after following a man out of Pizza Luce downtown and assaulting him back in November.
Around 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 26, Minneapolis police responded to a call about an assault by security personnel at Pizza Luce in the alley off of 2nd Avenue North between 4th and 5th streets.
The caller said that he was followed by four suspects after leaving the restaurant, and he was jumped in the alley by a 6’2’’ tall, 250 pound man wearing a black stocking cap and black clothing.
He said that he was “struck multiple times and knocked to the ground, and the attack continued until he stopped moving and played ‘dead,’” according to the criminal complaint.
Prior to the assault, the victim had been at Pizza Luce with his wife, sister and friends. When they got up from the table, the man took his wife’s arm because she was “tipsy” and wearing very tall heels. As he was talking with her, an officer came up to him and “thought he might be too aggressive with his wife and that he was taking her somewhere against her will," the charges say.
The man then went outside with the officer and talked to him. He believed that one of the suspects standing behind him when he was talking with the officer, which may have triggered the assault.
He texted his wife telling her he was going to get the car. He was then assaulted by the group.
The man said that the incident was “very weird” and that the suspects didn’t say anything during the assault.
Upon investigating the surveillance footage, an officer met with the off-duty officer who talked to the victim that night. The off-duty officer identified the suspect as Cornelius Pitts.
Surveillance revealed that Lamont Gilbert joined in on assaulting the victim. Gilbert has since been released from custody, but he is charged with one count of riot in the third degree, two counts of assault in the fifth degree and one count of disorderly conduct.
Cornelius Pitts, 34, is charged with one count of riot in the third degree, two counts of assault in the fifth degree and one count of disorderly conduct.