Winston Boogie Smith Jr.

Winston “Boogie” Smith Jr., 32, a father of three and local comedian, was shot and killed by members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force in an Uptown Minneapolis parking ramp on June 3, 2021, while sitting in an SUV with a woman he had been on a lunch date with. Task force members had watched the couple for over an hour before boxing in Smith's vehicle and announcing an arrest on an outstanding firearms warrant; officials said he refused to comply and produced a handgun, and task force members fired. No body camera, dashcam, or surveillance footage of the shooting exists — the Marshals Service had not yet implemented a body camera policy change in Minnesota specifically, despite the change taking effect elsewhere months earlier. His companion's attorneys said she never saw Smith holding a gun, and investigators never took gunshot residue samples from his hands because his body had already been washed by the medical examiner. Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan declined to charge any task force member in October 2021. No one has ever been charged in Smith's death.

Minneapolis, MN · Hennepin County

• 2021: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The hour-long surveillance, the vehicle stop, and the shooting, per Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan's public findings and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's investigation.
• No body camera, dashcam, or surveillance video of the shooting itself exists; officers assigned to the task force had body cameras but were told by the U.S. Marshals Service not to use them, even after an October 2020 Department of Justice policy change permitting local task force members to wear them during arrest operations — a policy that did not take effect in Minnesota until the day after Smith's death.
• Attorney Ryan's letter stated task force members watched Smith and his companion, Norhan Askar, share a rooftop lunch date and walk to his vehicle before officers boxed the car in with their own and announced an arrest.
• Askar's attorneys said she never saw Smith holding a weapon, and that officers never identified themselves as law enforcement before surrounding the car; they said this contributed to the confusion of the encounter.
• Investigators did not collect gunshot residue samples from Smith's hands because the medical examiner had already washed his body before the request was made, according to Askar's attorneys, who said such evidence could have helped establish what actually happened.
• A firearm was recovered from underneath the seat of the vehicle Smith arrived in, not immediately on his person; he was prohibited from possessing a gun due to a prior felony conviction.
• Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan, brought in because Twin Cities-area prosecutors had conflicts of interest, announced in October 2021 that task force members were legally justified and would not be charged, a decision the Hennepin County Attorney's Office publicly announced on his behalf.
• The names of the task force members who fired have never been publicly released.

• Whether Smith actually drew and fired a weapon, as officials maintained, or whether the official account itself shifted over the investigation's early days — from an initial claim he “fired first” to a later, more limited claim he “pulled out a gun” — was never resolved by any independent evidence, since no video exists and gunshot residue was never tested.
• Why officers were instructed not to use body cameras in Minnesota specifically, when the policy permitting their use elsewhere had already changed months earlier, has not been fully explained beyond acknowledgment of the delay.
• The identities of the task force members who fired the fatal shots have never been publicly disclosed.

• NPR — “No charges will be filed against officers who fatally shot Winston Smith in Minn.”
• NBC News — “Officers didn't identify themselves in fatal Minneapolis shooting of Winston Boogie Smith, attorney says”
• Star Tribune — “Attorney for Winston Smith's family calls for independent investigation”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs