On 01/06/2026 at about 1730 hours, Maplewood Police spotted a 2018 Dodge Charger (MN/KRZ876) driving south on White Bear Ave toward County Rd C in Maplewood, Ramsey County. The vehicle was reported stolen out of Minneapolis on 1/2/26 (Minneapolis CN 26-002112) and NCIC indicated there was a loaded firearm in its glove compartment when it was stolen. Police followed the Charger as it drove to the parking lot of New Horizon Academy ([ADDRESS REDACTED]). There, the driver parked the vehicle and the Maplewood Officer activated the squad’s emergency lights and initiated a traffic stop.
The officer’s view of the vehicle was obscured, but Leeanthony Kewayne BENNETTE [DOB REDACTED] exited the vehicle and walked to the business’ main doors. When confronted, BENNETTE denied exiting the Charger, said he got out of the white SUV parked next to the Charger, and said the driver of the Charger was still in the driver’s seat. BENNETTE continued into the daycare. After backup arrived, police confirmed that the Charger was, in fact, empty, and entered the daycare. BENNETTE was inside with an unidentified adult female and three unidentified juveniles.
BENNETTE again said he had exited the white SUV next to the Charger. When police tried to handcuff him, BENNETTE resisted, refused to follow Officers’ orders, and tried several times to pass a folded piece of paper to the unidentified female and an unidentified juvenile male whom BENNETTE said was his son. BENNETTE said he was trying to give his son money. BENNETTE was taken to ground, continued resisting, but was eventually handcuffed. Once under control, BENNETTE volunteered that there was cocaine inside the paper he was trying to pass to his son.
While police searched BENNETTE, the unidentified female and two juvenile children got into the white SUV and left the scene. When they did, it revealed that a black pistol (9mm Spingfield XDM, Serial Number BY383421) was on the ground where the SUV had been parked. The pistol’s magazine was loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition. CCTV footage showed BENNETTE exiting the Dodge's driver’s door and, after the officer confronted him, unzipping his jacket, reaching into it, taking out the pistol, and throwing it under the white SUV. In a post-Miranda statement, BENNETTE said he was smoking weed with some people, whose names he did not know, in Minneapolis and one of them said he could use the Charger to pick up his son from daycare.
BENNETTE said that while driving the Charger he discovered the gun next to the driver’s seat. BENNETTE said that when he got to the daycare, he grabbed the gun and when confronted by police, threw it under the SUV. BENNETTE said he had been drinking tequila straight out of the bottle and half the bottle was still in the Charger. During a search of the vehicle, police found an open bottle of tequila in the front passenger seat. Police also found that the vehicle’s rear driver’s side window was broken out, that the area surrounding the radio had been ripped out, wires were exposed, and the rearview mirror had been ripped off.
