Suspect in murder outside Minot bar held on $2 million bond

MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – The suspect charged in a fatal shooting early Friday morning outside of the Lamplighter Lounge in Minot will be held on a $2 million bond.

Prosecutors charged 34-year-old Justin McDermott with AA-felony murder.

According to a criminal affidavit filed Friday and a news release from Minot Police, officers responded to reports of shots fired at the Lamplighter around 1:40 a.m. Friday.

Investigators said responding officers found a male victim in the bar’s south parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds and the victim was pronounced dead before transport.

Prosecutors said officers found another man, identified as McDermott, lying next to the shooting victim with facial injuries.

The affidavit indicates that multiple witnesses told police McDermott shot and killed the victim.

Investigators said a witness who had left the bar and entered the parking lot at the time of the incident told them he saw McDermott shoot the victim. Investigators said the witness told them that he walked up to McDermott, knocked him unconscious, took the gun away, and reentered the bar, giving the weapon to bar staff.

McDermott made his initial appearance on the charge Friday afternoon in Minot. When the question of bond came up, the wife of the victim, who has not yet been publicly identified but is from Hawaii, was given the chance to speak, and pleaded for the suspect to be held without bond.

The state initially asked for McDermott to be held on a $1 million bond, though Judge Stacy Louser doubled that, ordering him to be held on $2 million.

McDermott will appear for his preliminary hearing and be arraigned Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. He faces the chance of life in prison without parole if he’s convicted on the AA-felony charge.

Your News Leader reached out to management with the Lamplighter, who declined to comment, but said the lounge was closed Friday, and the liquor store would be open until 5 p.m.

Minot Police said the incident is the third murder in the city in 2022.

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