Jun. 6—WINONA, Minn. — The Winona man involved in a shooting near Winona State University was sentenced to three years in prison.
Cole Robert Cameron, 27, was charged with felony counts of first-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and intentional discharge of a firearm. The charges related to a shooting on Oct. 17, 2024, in a Winona apartment complex.
He pleaded guilty on April 18 to a lesser charge of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. In exchange for his plea, the remaining charges would be dismissed as well as an assault charge filed in an earlier, separate case.
On Thursday, June 5, Winona County District Judge Dwight Luhmann ordered Cameron to serve the presumptive sentence of 36 months, or three years, at the St. Cloud correctional facility. Cameron received 232 days of credit for time served.
According to the criminal complaint, officers responded to an apartment building early in the morning on Oct. 17, 2024. Dispatch was informed that someone had been shot with a gun on the third floor of the building. Officers saw a witness leaning over the man who was shot.
“I shot him,” Cameron told police, according to the complaint.
The witness told police the firearm was in his room and that he overheard Cameron and the man arguing in the hallway before the shooting, according to the complaint. The witness looked out of his apartment door and watched Cameron go back into his apartment. Cameron returned to the hallway with a black Beretta handgun, the criminal complaint said. The witness said Cameron told the man he would “pump him full of lead,” according to the complaint.
The witness heard Cameron tell the man to get away from him. “Do you want to get shot?” Cameron asked the man, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the witness tried to get the man to go back to his apartment, but he was unsuccessful. The witness began recording the audio of the argument on his phone.
“It’s loaded, hollow points, go back to your apartment now,” Cameron said in the audio recording. “Do you want me to pull the trigger?”
The man yelled back, “Pull it.” A single gunshot was fired, the complaint said.
The witness left their apartment and went back into the hallway, where he saw Cameron standing over the man who was shot, the complaint said. The witness told Cameron to put the gun away for law enforcement’s safety. The witness then attempted to help the man who was shot.
According to the complaint, officers obtained camera surveillance footage from the third floor of the building. Cameron can be heard trying to get the man to go back into his apartment. The man who was shot sounded “extremely intoxicated,” the complaint said.
The video captured Cameron walking backward down the hall with his right arm extended while pointing a dark-colored gun toward the man, the complaint said.
“Due to the fact that the Ring camera is motion activated, the video does not capture the actual shooting,” the complaint said.
After the shooting, the man was seen lying on the floor, “moving slightly and moaning.” Cameron was seen running from where the shooting occurred, the complaint said.
The complaint said he was later seen leaving without the gun.
According to a search warrant filed on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, officers located a loaded Beretta 9mm handgun on the kitchen counter, three 9mm handgun magazines, boxed and loose ammunition, a gun lock and a black-colored cloth gun case.
The complaint said the man who was shot was transported by ambulance to the emergency room. Doctors told the officers he was in severe condition. The man was then airlifted to a La Crosse, Wisconsin, hospital for further treatment.
While Cameron was being transported to Winona County Jail, he made “spontaneous statements” about how the man who was shot kept following him and “blocked his way home,” the complaint said. Cameron said he told the man to go back into his apartment and that he “did not want to do this.”
At the jail, Cameron provided a preliminary breath test sample of 0.20% BAC, according to the complaint.