Man grazed by bullet in Minneapolis shooting recounts moments as shots rang out
Stiches remain after a bullet grazed the side of Devenier Senter's face during Saturday's mass shooting in downtown Minneapolis. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - As the man charged in the mass shooting in downtown Minneapolis makes his first court appearance, one of the survivors who just narrowly avoided serious injury is sharing his story.
The suspect, 24-year-old Jawan Carroll of St. Paul, appeared before a judge on Thursday after being charged with two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in the early Saturday morning shooting. Police say an argument ended with Carroll and another man firing shots at each other despite a large crowd of people standing nearby. Officers say the other shooter was killed along with a University of St. Thomas who was an innocent bystander.
Several others standing in the crowd, who had nothing to do with the situation, were also injured. That includes Devenier Senter, who still has a couple of stitches from the graze wound near his right eye.
He knows all too well if he was just a step over or facing a slightly different direction on 1st Avenue when the gunfire erupted, Devenier might not be here to share his story.
"I was centimeters away from either dying or losing my eyesight or everything," he said. "If fragment went here, I could have lost my eyesight and it could have been worse."
The 27-year old says he was hanging out downtown Friday after work, having played some pool while enjoying a few drinks at a nearby pub when he found himself in a crowd outside Monarch Nightclub while waiting for his Lyft ride home.
He remembers witnessing the initial verbal and physical altercation when the gunfire broke out between two groups. Doctors would need to remove a bullet fragment from the wound at nearby Hennepin County Medical Center.
"I felt myself bleeding like 30 seconds later," said Devenier. "I didn’t really feel it after until I got to the hospital."
"I’m not mad or anything, but people are just too trigger happy," he added.
In court, the judge formally set bail at $1 million with conditions that include no guns or weapons if Carroll is able to come up with the money, as well as an order to stay out of downtown.