A 19-year-old man is expected to be sent to prison for 21 years after pleading guilty Thursday to accidentally shooting and killing a friend during a fight in a Brooklyn Park parking lot.
Deshawn Deaondre Roberts admitted that he opened fire in the parking lot of Central Park on April 24 and hit his friend, 16-year-old Terrence Creamer, in the head. Creamer died five days later.
Prosecutors said they are seeking the severe sentence because the shooting endangered others in the park.
"When a young man wildly fires more than a half-dozen shots and leaves one person dead, we push for long prison terms," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement.
According to the criminal complaint, police were dispatched to the park around 8:30 p.m. and found Creamer bleeding and unconscious.
Witnesses said that a group of people had been at the park for a barbecue. There had been a disagreement that caused some people to meet in the parking lot where Roberts was apparently going to fight another man. During the confrontation, Roberts took out a gun and started shooting.
Roberts told authorities that he shot his gun, a 9-millimeter, about six or seven times at people in the parking lot, but that he didn't intend to hit Creamer.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 19.
NICOLE NORFLEET