The suspect in the shooting death of an 18-year-old Navy sailor outside of a San Diego nightclub was arrested Wednesday in Minnesota, police said.
Ta’Kari Terell Benness, 20, of Minnesota, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the August slaying of Albert Soto, police officials said Thursday.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Aug. 31 allegedly following a confrontation between two groups of men at an East Village nightclub near Ninth and F streets.
According to San Diego police Lt. Lou Maggi, Soto and a group of friends were involved in a fight with another group inside the club with the altercation spilling outside even as both groups left the establishment through separate exits.
At around 12:50 a.m., shots were reported near Ninth and F streets. A San Diego police officer who had been working in the area heard the shots and arrived at the scene, finding Soto on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound.
Soto was transported to a hospital but did not survive.
The group consisting of the shooter and multiple others was allegedly seen running along F Street.
Police identified each member of the group and identified Benness as the shooting suspect, Maggi said.
Benness was arrested without incident Wednesday in St. Cloud, Minn., by the St. Cloud Police Department.
Soto, a native of Queens, N.Y., had been signed to the USS Pickney at Naval Base San Diego as an operations specialist seaman apprentice.
He had arrived in San Diego in April 2023 after enlisting in the Navy the prior fall.
“We mourn the loss of Albert Soto,” Naval spokesman Brian O’Rourke said last month in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the sailor’s family, friends and shipmates.”
