A Saint Paul man is charged with riot in a June shooting near a Minneapolis party that critically wounded a girl, according to a criminal complaint. He told investigators he carried the gun to parties for one of two juveniles who were with him that night.
Treyvon Jermaine Davis Tipton, 19, faces a felony count of second-degree riot while armed with a dangerous weapon, charged under the state’s aiding-and-abetting statute. The complaint was issued Oct. 19 in Hennepin County District Court, and bail was set at $20,000.
According to the complaint, Minneapolis police were called at about 1:26 a.m. June 28 to a shooting near Hennepin and Laurel avenues. Witnesses reported hearing five to eight shots, and officers saw teenagers running from the area. They found a girl who had been shot in the back on the sidewalk.
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The girl had been at a party with friends when a group of young men showed up, one of them with a gun, the complaint says. When she and her friends tried to leave, shots were fired.
A bullet went through her lower torso, the complaint says. Investigators learned she would have died without emergency medical care, and she is not expected to make a full recovery.
Using her description of the shooter’s clothing, officers found two juveniles shortly afterward in the direction she said the group had run. One carried a backpack holding a 9 mm pistol that was still warm to the touch, with an empty magazine inserted, according to the complaint. At least six 9 mm casings were found at the scene.
A witness and surveillance photos later led investigators to Tipton, the complaint says. When investigators spoke with him July 27, he admitted being at the party with the two juveniles and said the group had a dispute with another person there.
Tipton told investigators his DNA would be on the gun because he had held it that night, according to the complaint. He said one of the juveniles fired the shots, that the gun belonged to the other, and that he would hold the gun for its owner when the group traveled to parties and hand it back once they arrived.
A state crime lab analysis of DNA swabbed from the pistol supported including Tipton in a mixture of DNA from several people, the complaint says. According to the complaint, he is serving a prison sentence in another case.
The riot count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both, according to the complaint.
