Boy, 14, charged with fatal shooting of 13-year-old in Minneapolis home

A 14-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy in a Minneapolis home last month, officials said Friday.

The boy was charged by juvenile petition in Hennepin County District Court alleging that he shot the younger teen on Nov. 5 , County Attorney’s Office spokesman Daniel Borgertpoepping said.

Borgertpoepping said state data practices laws prevent him from releasing more information about the case because of the boy’s age.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Quadir Deangelo Blackwell, 13, was shot once in the head about 1:30 a.m. in a home in the 2400 block of Ferrant Place. The manner of death was listed as homicide.

“The death of a child is always incredibly troubling and tragic,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara soon after the shooting. “In addition to supporting the families that are impacted by this tragedy, everyone must make every effort to ensure that every gun is securely stored.”

According to police, officers arrived at the home to find that the 13-year-old had been shot once. They provided immediate aid to the teen, but he died at the scene.

“Preliminary information indicates that a 14-year-old boy was handling a gun when the 13-year-old boy was shot,” the police statement continued.

There were two adult women and other juveniles in the home at the time of the shooting.

The shooting came about two weeks after a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot himself to death in northeast Minneapolis. Jajuan Robinson was critically wounded at the Hook and Ladder Apartments in the 2300 block of Jefferson Street NE. on Oct, 21, said his aunt Meshia Woods. The toddler died at HCMC a short time later.

Elliott Staples III, 30, of Minneapolis, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter stemming from that shooting.

Woods said police told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.

Almost 300 minors have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else in the United States this year, resulting in 106 deaths and 187 injuries, according to a database compiled by the gun-control advocacy group Everytown USA.

In another case last April, an 11-year-old boy was shot and wounded by his 13-year-old cousin in St. Paul after a group of kids discovered two firearms in their father’s closet drawer. The kids were playing with the handguns, assuming they were unloaded.