A Brooklyn Center teenager deemed dangerous by police and north Minneapolis community leaders for his proclivities with a handgun will spend four years in prison for a hold-up he committed less than a month after his 17th birthday.

Cinque Daprice Owens was sentenced on Monday in Hennepin County District Court after he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery. Owens waived his objections to being certified as an adult, according to the Hennepin County attorney's office.

"Owens had a history of creating chaos wherever he went, was an active gang member and could have easily killed two innocent people during this robbery," County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement.

Police and probations officers were already looking to arrest Owens on Dec. 1 on a warrant for another crime. They were monitoring an intersection in north Minneapolis when they saw three men in dark-colored hooded sweat shirts come out of a house and walk to the parking lot of Winner Gas Station at 45th St. and Lyndale Av. N. As they robbed a man and woman, police intervened and arrested Owens and two others.

The victims told police that Owens put a gun to the man's jaw and said, "You know what this is. Don't make this a murder," according to the criminal complaint.

They stole cash, a cellphone and cigarettes from the couple. Prosecutors also charged Owens' accomplice, Robert Rydell Williams, 24, of Brooklyn Park, with two counts of aggravated robbery.

ABBY SIMONS