3 Charged After Drive-By Shooting Paralyzes Brooklyn Park Man

Jun 17

Three men have been charged in connection with a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn Park that left the victim paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors have charged Hassan Papee Kamara, 21, of Minneapolis and Nicholas Sarkor Harris Jr., 21, of Brooklyn Park with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and drive-by shooting.

Prosecutors have also charged 36-year-old Trokon Kaigboyah with aiding an offender to avoid arrest.

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Police were called around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 29 to a home on the 6000 block of Garwood Road North, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to his lower back. He told officers he couldn’t feel his legs and had just parked outside his home when two men wearing ski masks drove by and opened fire from a vehicle.

Through investigation, police identified Kamara and Harris as the suspects. Witnesses told officers the shooting may have been retaliation for a fight during a basketball game days earlier. One of the men involved had allegedly threatened to get a gun and later posted on social media that he was going to “take care of it.”

Doctors determined the victim had multiple spinal fractures and had large bullet fragments lodged in his spinal canal. He was declared paraplegic.

Investigators tracked surveillance video of a silver sedan fleeing the scene. The vehicle was located at an apartment building on the 5800 block of 73rd Avenue in Brooklyn Park and was registered to Kamara’s brother. Video showed three men entering the building, including Kamara and Harris. A short time later, a fourth man—identified as Kaigboyah—moved the car into a visitor parking spot. Police later determined Kaigboyah lived at the complex.

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A search of the vehicle turned up a .40 caliber shell casing in the front passenger area, a bag of suspected marijuana, and various receipts. On June 4, officers searched Kaigboyah’s apartment and found two handguns, including a loaded Glock 23 and another .40 caliber pistol with an extended magazine. Ammunition was also found, including live .45 caliber rounds inside the toilet. The shell casing recovered from the car matched the Glock.

Kaigboyah told police that Kamara, Harris and a third man came to his apartment after the shooting, changed clothes and gave him a paper bag containing the Glock. He said they stayed until around 5 a.m.

All three were arrested and Kamara and Harris remain in custody in Hennepin County. Bail for Kamara and Harris was set at $150,000. Kaigboyah was released without posting bail.

UPDATE: Since the original charges were filed, a fourth man accused of participating in the shooting has also been charged. 19-year-old Osman Hi Kamara of Brooklyn Center now faces three felonies including first-degree assault, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and drive-by shooting. According to investigators, he had been involved in a fight with the victim during a basketball game days before the shooting and allegedly said he was going to get his gun. Police say Osman Kamara was identified in surveillance video arriving with the others after the shooting and was named by Kaigboyah as one of the men who stayed at the apartment and helped hide the gun.

Osman Kamara was taken into custody and remains jailed on $150,000 bail with the same court-ordered restrictions.

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