A 60-year-old Minneapolis man is facing attempted second-degree murder and weapons charges after police say he shot his wife in the wrist as she sat in her car near 13th Avenue South and Lake Street last week, just days after she filed for divorce. Antone Owens was arrested Wednesday and made his first court appearance Friday afternoon, with a judge setting an omnibus hearing for September 2.
According to the criminal complaint, Owens's wife told him only recently that she planned to divorce him, and divorce paperwork was filed on July 27. Two days before the shooting, per the complaint, Owens threatened to kill her. Minneapolis police responded to the shooting near 13th Avenue South and Lake Street around 8:50 p.m., according to KSTP, in the Midtown Phillips neighborhood along a dense stretch of the East Lake Street commercial corridor.
Owens's wife told investigators that he walked up to her car, pulled out a gun and fired twice, striking her in the wrist. She then drove herself to a nearby hospital, per the outlet's report. Owens was charged with second-degree intentional murder, second-degree assault, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition following a violent-crime conviction.
Search of Owens's Home Turns Up Hidden Gun, Live Rounds
Police searched Owens's home and, per the same account, found a handgun hidden beneath an HVAC floor vent along with many live rounds. Investigators say Owens's prior convictions barred him from possessing a firearm at all — he has prior convictions dating to 2014 and 2024, the station reports. Court records reviewed by Justia Law show Owens previously appealed a Hennepin County District Court conviction stemming from a September 2015 Minnesota State Patrol traffic stop in Minneapolis, with the appellate court affirming the district court's postconviction ruling in 2019.
Under Minnesota Statute § 624.713, illegal possession of a firearm or ammunition by someone with a prior violent-crime conviction is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000, according to Birkholz Law. Separately, under Minnesota Statutes § 609.19 and § 609.17, attempted second-degree intentional murder carries a statutory maximum of up to 20 years — half the maximum penalty for a completed second-degree murder.
Case Heads to Hennepin County Ahead of September Hearing
Owens's case will proceed through the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, which prosecutes Minneapolis felony cases at the Hennepin County Government Center downtown, per the Anderson Law Office. His scheduled September 2 omnibus hearing is governed by Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, during which a judge weighs probable cause challenges, evidentiary motions, and constitutional issues before trial, according to the Minnesota Judicial Branch.
The shooting arrives just days after a slate of new Minnesota domestic violence laws took effect on August 1, establishing mandatory compliance court hearings meant to verify that people under protective or domestic abuse orders actually surrender their firearms, as reported by MPR News. Lawmakers passed the requirement after data showed low compliance rates for existing gun surrender orders.
Advocates Point to Statewide Pattern of Separation Violence
The case fits a pattern domestic violence advocates have long tracked. Data from Violence Free Minnesota's gender-based violence report, published in October 2024 by the Minnesota Women's Press, found that 55.2% of intimate partner violence victims were separated from their abuser or in the process of leaving when they were attacked. Separately, the coalition's tracking data cited by MPR News found at least 31 Minnesotans were killed in intimate partner violence-related homicides in 2025, with firearms identified as the primary weapon involved in those deaths.
In Minneapolis, nonfatal shootings like this one are now routed to a specialized unit created to speed up investigations. The Minneapolis Police Department launched its Firearm Assault Shoot Team, known as FAST, in May to raise clearance rates on nonfatal gun violence cases and get detectives to crime scenes faster, Hoodline previously reported. Owens's wife's medical recovery and the exact circumstances of how he obtained the firearm despite his legal prohibition remain open questions as the case moves toward its September court date.
