SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego Police Department says a 20-year-old man was arrested in Minnesota in connection to the fatal shooting of a Navy sailor in the East Village that happened in late August.
According to SDPD, homicide investigators determined Ta'Kari Terell Benness was the shooter after they sifted through security footage and license plate readers and conducted witness interviews. He was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday by officers from the Saint Cloud Police Department, the press release says.
Albert Soto, 18, was the sailor killed. The New York native had enlisted in the Navy in Oct. 2023, and he was an operations specialist assigned to the USS Pinckney at Naval Base San Diego, a Navy spokesman told ABC 10News in September.
The shooting happened around 12:50 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, after Soto and his friends got into an altercation with a group of men inside a nightclub. The arguing continued on the street after both groups left the club, and about 30 minutes later, shots were fired near the intersection of Ninth and F streets, SDPD says.
Soto was taken to a hospital in the area, where he later died.
SDPD says it has identified Benness and the other three men who were with him when the shooting happened.
ABC 10News reporter Michael Chen spoke to Soto's family several weeks after the shooting.
“He was just like bright, the bright character in the room,“ said Atoria Elem, Soto's cousin. “It just makes you feel angry, then you’re upset. Then you’re sad," the family said.
SDPD thanked the other agencies involved in this investigation: NCIS, the Saint Cloud Police Department, Community Response Team, Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force, and Saint Cloud SWAT Team.
If you have more information about this case, you can reach out to SDPD's Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293. You can stay anonymous with your tip by calling Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
A Gofundme campaign has been set up to help Soto's family.
