St. Cloud Police Arrest Suspect Wanted in California Homicide Case

(KNSI) – St. Cloud Police say they have arrested a suspect who was wanted for murder in California.

According to a press release from the San Diego Police Department, they responded to a shooting August 31st. An officer nearby heard the shots and arrived to find Albert Soto lying on the ground. The officer started CPR, but Soto was pronounced dead at the scene.

Soto was a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in San Diego.

Investigators determined he and his friends had been involved in an altercation with a group of men inside a local nightclub. Both groups left the club via separate exits, but the arguing continued outside the club and intermittently for the next 30 minutes, until shots rang out. The groups fled the scene. The suspected shooter in the case was identified as 20-year-old Ta’Kari Terell Benness, who had previously lived in St. Cloud.

Authorities here say Tuesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Benness in California, and at about 10:30 Wednesday morning, he was taken into custody by St. Cloud police during a traffic stop near the intersection of 10th Avenue and 2nd Street North.

Search warrants were executed at a home on the 1000 block of 14th Avenue SE and another on the 1100 block of Sequoia Avenue. What was found was not disclosed.

Benness was booked into the Stearns County jail where he remains.

___