A man who opened fire with a fully automatic handgun in a crowded downtown Minneapolis parking lot has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison, more than two years after the shooting left one man dead and two bystanders wounded. Casey Jemar Davis, now 32, had spent more than two and a half years on the run before police finally caught up with him.
According to KNSI, the shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. on July 28, 2022, outside a sports bar near North 4th Street and North 1st Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. A fight inside the bar spilled into the parking lot, where Davis got into an argument with a group of men standing next to an SUV. Surveillance video reportedly showed the man Davis was arguing with holding a gun pointed at the ground, according to prosecutors cited by the outlet.
Davis was carrying a .40-caliber Glock fitted with a switch — a device that allows a handgun to fire like a machine gun with a single pull of the trigger, per the same report. As the man turned to run, Davis shot him several times in the back, legs and arms. His gun was never fired during the encounter, KNSI reports. Davis's co-defendant, Cleveland Longmire, also fired a weapon toward the ground near the man, prosecutors said.
A Barrage of Gunfire on North 1st Avenue
Investigators later found more than 20 casings from Davis's gun scattered across the parking lot, according to the same KNSI account. A separate, earlier report from startribune.com detailed the toll: the shooting killed 20-year-old Chante L. Williams, of St. Paul, and wounded two other people. That account states Davis fired from a distance of 8 to 12 feet, shooting Williams seven times in the back and the back of the neck, and that the .40-caliber weapon was outfitted with an auto sear allowing it to fire multiple times with a single trigger squeeze.
A separate account from crimewatchmn.medium.com adds further detail: 24 spent shell casings were recovered from the scene, including 21 .40-caliber casings and three 9mm casings, and a loaded 9mm handgun was found next to Williams's body with no indication that it had been fired. Davis then got into the vehicle next to the victim and drove away as officers arrived at the scene, according to the accounts.
On the Run for Years Before an Arrest in St. Paul
Davis remained on the run for more than two and a half years after the shooting. Police finally caught him in St. Paul on February 20, 2025, according to KNSI's reporting, and at the time of his arrest he was found in possession of another switch-equipped gun.
Law enforcement has separately identified Davis as an active and long-standing member of the HAM Crazy criminal street gang, per crimewatchmn.medium.com. KNSI similarly reports prosecutors say both Davis and Longmire are members of the HAM Crazy street gang. Davis had originally been charged with second-degree murder, two counts of attempted second-degree murder, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to that same crimewatchmn.medium.com account.
Guilty Pleas and Two Separate Sentences
Davis ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional murder and two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and was sentenced to 24½ years in Hennepin County, according to KNSI's report. On the federal side, Chief U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud sentenced the 32-year-old Davis for being a felon in possession of a firearm, calling his actions brutal and sadistic and saying Davis poses a great threat to public safety, per the same report.
Reporting on the federal sentence itself diverges. KNSI reports Davis was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison, while a Justice Department release snippet states he was sentenced to 168 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Hoodline could not independently confirm which figure reflects the final judgment.
Davis's co-defendant, Longmire, was sentenced in federal court in January 2024 to 7½ years in prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to startribune.com's reporting.
Switches Are Turning Up More Often in Minnesota
The case fits a pattern state and federal authorities have been watching closely. Minnesota agencies requested a trace on 26 machine guns in 2022, and that number rose by four the following year, according to cbsnews.com. In 2023 alone, the ATF traced 5,206 guns recovered from crime scenes across Minnesota, and 88 of them were either machine guns or had been converted into one, the station reports.
The ATF also created a new tracking category in 2023 specifically for Machinegun Conversion Devices, logging 58 trace requests in that category during the year, per the same cbsnews.com report. Previously, guns fitted with auto sears were simply classified by their underlying firearm type, such as a pistol or rifle, the outlet notes. Federal law makes it unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machine gun except under specified statutory exceptions, per 18 U.S.C. § 922, and 18 U.S.C. § 921 includes a provision on machinegun conversion devices.
