Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 17-year-old girl's fatal Brooklyn Park shooting

A 25-year-old man reached a deal to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, last summer.

Melchizedek Erastuscorboi Kpaan, of Maple Grove, had been charged with second-degree intentional murder and possessing a firearm as a felon.

Charges say officers responded near the intersection of 70th Avenue North and Lakeland Avenue North during the night of July 1, 2025, after a girl called 911 to report she had been shot. 

Responding officers found the girl was unconscious and nonresponsive. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died, court documents say.

Surveillance video in the area of the shooting showed the girl walking behind a man, later identified as Kpaan, carrying a backpack through a parking lot, according to charges. He walked away from the girl, and "briefly" out of the camera's view. 

Charges say Kpaan was holding a firearm when he reappeared on the video, which then showed Kpaan throwing the backpack at the girl and shooting the firearm. The girl allegedly grabbed her torso before running away and pulling a firearm from her waistband, which she did not aim or fire at anyone. 

Video showed Kpaan running from the scene, taking off a blue sweater and putting it in a dumpster, charges say. The sweater was later recovered.

Investigators allegedly used data from the girl's cellphone to learn she had been sending messages to Kpaan's cellphone in the time leading up to the shooting. Charges say police identified the man in the surveillance video as Kpaan using recent booking photos. 

He was arrested in Ohio on July 18, 2025.