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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic and Brandt Williams

Pregnant woman dies in south Minneapolis shooting; baby delivered by doctors

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Updated: 6:49 p.m. July 7 | Posted: 5:34 p.m. July 6

Police are investigating a fatal shooting Sunday night in south Minneapolis that left a pregnant woman dead. Doctors were able to deliver the baby.

Officers found the woman suffering a gunshot wound just after 9 p.m. Sunday near East 37th Street and Elliot Avenue. She was pronounced dead at HCMC, but doctors delivered her baby and placed the child in intensive care.

Charles Dillon, a DJ known as Chaz Millionaire on KMOJ radio, identified the victim as his niece, 27-year-old Leneesha Helen Columbus.

"She was a fabulous, hard working young lady. She was just a beautiful spirit," Dillon said of his niece.

Dillon said Columbus was a victim of domestic violence.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified the victim as Columbus and said she died of a gunshot wound to her torso and her death was a homicide.

Minneapolis police now say a second gunshot victim who arrived at the hospital around the same time was connected to the incident, but a department spokesperson said he could not provide any other details. Police said Tuesday no one has been arrested.

In Minneapolis, more than 100 people have been shot and wounded in the city since the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by police. Thirty people, including Floyd, have died in homicides so far this year — double the number of killings in the city over the same period in 2019.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.