2 charged in attempted Minneapolis car theft that left Army veteran fatally wounded

A man and woman from St. Paul, Minnesota, face charges in connection with an attempted car theft that left a beloved coffee shop employee with a fatal head injury.

Janaya and Jordan Frost are each charged with one count of aiding an offender, and Janaya Frost faces an additional count of aiding an offender to avoid arrest, according to court documents filed in Hennepin County on Friday.

Charges said Janaya and Jordan Frost were dropped off in front of Rick's Coffee Shop on the 5400 block of Third Avenue South on May 15. The driver who dropped them off stuck around after they left the vehicle, a 2018 Chevrolet. Janaya Frost entered the shop, while Jordan Frost allegedly went to the victim's vehicle, opened it and stole a backpack from it.

The victim, later identified as 38-year-old Amos Ferrier, saw what was happening from inside the shop and ran outside with another person to stop the theft.

Jordan Frost then returned to the Chevrolet with the stolen backpack, according to the criminal complaint. Ferrier ran into the middle of the street, and the driver approached him before accelerating, causing Ferrier "to fall onto the vehicle's hood," the complaint states. Witnesses said the driver made several attempts to get Ferrier off the hood by moving the vehicle, then "began aggressively swerving from side to side in the roadway," causing Ferrier to fall and hit his head. He died two days later at a hospital.

Charges said the driver fled the scene, stopping a few blocks away so Jordan Frost could dump the contents of the backpack and Janaya Frost, who had left the coffee shop, could get in the car.

Police tracked the car and learned its owner "is associated with Janaya Frost based upon prior police contacts," the complaint states. Two people who met up with the driver and the Frosts after the alleged crime also confirmed the three were all in the 2018 Chevrolet.

Cellphone data and surveillance footage also tied the Frosts to the incident.  

Neither the Frosts nor the driver reported Ferrier's injuries to law enforcement, the complaint states.

Janaya Frost was arrested on Tuesday. Jordan Frost is not in custody. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office said "an investigation to confirm the identity of a third individual, who is believed to have been the driver, is ongoing."

Ferrier was the internship director for the nonprofit Every Third Saturday, which operates Rick's and is on the same block. He also served in the U.S. Army for 15 years as a medic.

"We've talked with the family and we all feel strongly that we forgive the people that did this," Tom McKenna, Every Third Saturday's cofounder, said. "We want them brought to justice and they need to be held accountable for what they did."  

Note: The video above originally aired May 19, 2026.