Man charged with murder for New Year's shooting in St. Paul bar parking lot
Thirty-year-old Trayvon Anderson is charged with second-degree murder for the deadly shooting on New Year's Day 2020 in St. Paul. (Ramsey County Jail / Supplied)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Prosecutors have filed charges against a man accused of opening fire in the parking lot of a St. Paul bar, killing a man in the early morning hours of New Year's Day.
Thirty-year-old Trayvon Anderson is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Carl Anthony Dobbs of Canton, Minnesota.
According to the charges, the two men showed up separately to Johnny Baby's bar on 900 block of University Avenue West around 1 a.m. prior to the shooting.
Dobbs arrived first, and surveillance video shows Anderson pulling up to the bar with another man not long after, prosecutors said. After spending some time in the bar, Anderson sat down next to Dobbs and, about five minutes later, the two men started speaking with each other.
Soon after, cameras show Anderson stand up and move toward Dobbs, who also stood up, before a crowd of people moved in between the men, preventing a physical confrontation.
Anderson then left the bar and waited in his car for about 25 minutes when Dobbs walked out of the bar. Anderson tried to follow Dobbs with his vehicle but was blocked by traffic in the bar's parking lot. Police say the video then shows Anderson get out of his car and mill around the lot on foot.
Shortly after, Dobbs got into his vehicle, a silver Charger, and made his way through the lot. At that point, prosecutors say Anderson walked out of camera view towards the Charger.
In the video, police say they see other patrons react to gunshots, ducking and running for cover. In the video, officers say the Charger spins into the view of the camera and part of Anderson is visible in the frame with a gun in his hand. Investigators say Anderson then got back into his vehicle, which was driven from the scene by his friend.
Officers who were patrolling the area heard the shots and quickly responded to the scene. They found a group of Good Samaritans trying to get into the locked Charger to help the driver. Officers say Dobbs wasn't moving and other patrons said they believed he was dead. Medics attempted to revive him but Dobbs was later pronounced dead.
Anderson was arrested Friday morning in his car. Police say he agreed to speak with officers about the shooting. When asked what he did for the New Year's, Anderson said he went to his girlfriend's house around 10 p.m. Tuesday night and then to a gathering in Oakdale.
When asked about Johnny Baby's bar, Anderson denied going there. However, when officers showed him a surveillance photo of him at the bar that night, they say Anderson admitted that was him. He also admitted the vehicle in the parking lot was his but didn't explain how it got there.
During the interview, police say Anderson was wearing the same necklace as he wore in the surveillance photos. When further questioned about the night, officers said Anderson told them, "I'm done talking, man."
Prosecutors say this isn't Anderson's first arrest for a shooting. He was previously convicted for a drive-by shooting in at a Cub Foods parking lot. However, prosecutors say he received a dispositional departure from his sentence, meaning he did not serve the full time. The victim in that shooting was not killed.
Anderson is being held in Ramsey County Jail.