Hopkins man charged after teen seriously injured in shooting
An 18-year-old man is charged with owning, possessing or operating a machine gun after a teen was seriously injured in a shooting in Hopkins, Minnesota, last month, court records show.
The criminal complaint against the man, from Hopkins, was filed in Hennepin County on Monday.
Police responded to the shooting on April 17 in the area of Feltl Court and Smetana Road around 3 p.m. They saw a Kia sedan parked on Feltl Court with some of its passenger doors open and two males, later identified as the man and a 15-year-old boy, sitting in the grass nearby, according to the court document. The two individuals seemed to be crying.
An officer near the Kia found a passenger, later identified as a 16-year-old boy, who had been shot in the head, the complaint said. The boy was taken to the hospital with a life-threatening injury, according to police.
The court document said officers found two Glock-style handguns with conversion switches in the sedan. The brother of the boy who was shot, identified in the complaint as a juvenile witness, arrived at the scene after police and told officers he had received a message telling him his brother had been shot.
Police seized the phone of the witness and the man for containing possible evidence, according to the complaint. They also found two other firearms in a wooded area near the Kia while at the scene.
Investigators, while searching through the phone of the witness, found a Snapchat video from the day of the shooting that showed the man, the 15-year-old boy and the boy who was shot, inside the sedan, according to the court document. It allegedly also showed the man holding three handguns, including one that was found inside the Kia after the incident.
Video found by police on the man's phone showed him posing with one of the guns found in the sedan, the complaint said.
As of Monday afternoon, the man is not in custody, though law enforcement in the complaint requested he be arrested "due to the public safety risk posed by the amount of firearms involved in this incident."
If convicted, the man faces up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $35,000.
