Brooklyn Park teen charged as adult in series of carjackings, robberies

A Brooklyn Park teenager is facing a round of felony charges stemming from a series of carjackings, aggravated robberies, credit card fraud and a shooting.

Asa Demetrius Huff-Jones Jr., 17, was charged with multiple crimes that occurred from December 2020 to last April, according to court documents filed this week in Hennepin County District Court.

Judge Amy Dawson on Tuesday ordered Huff-Jones to stand trial as an adult. He remained in the Hennepin County jail Thursday afternoon.

According to the charges:

Huff-Jones' crime spree began Dec. 4 when he carjacked a woman on the 2500 block of S. Humboldt Avenue. The teen approached the woman unloading groceries and Christmas items and demanded the keys to her Nissan Rogue. He struck the woman on the head with a handgun and fled with her car and wallet.

A short time later, he met two other men at a Holiday gas station in Crystal, where the men used the woman's credit card to buy $1,050 in gift cards, according to the charges. Police found her house keys at the station.

A week later, Huff-Jones is accused of pulling up along a former classmate walking on the 4300 block of Oregon Avenue in New Hope, brandishing a gun and telling the victim to "give me your stuff" before making off with $5.

On Feb. 6, Huff-Jones is accused of arranging via Snapchat a meeting with a juvenile he knew from school to buy an iPhone X. When the juvenile got into a van, Huff-Jones ordered the juvenile to give him his phone and his wallet, which held about $340. In a Miranda complaint, he is said to have admitted to the robbery, saying, "We pulled up, [victim] hopped in, we then took his money, we took his phone." The suspect said he used a BB gun that looked like a real gun.

On Feb. 15, police responded to a motor vehicle theft call in the 3600 block of Thomas Avenue N., where the victim said the suspect and an accomplice choked and pistol-whipped him before stealing his Dodge Durango. Police later arrested the teen suspect at a Cub Foods in Brooklyn Park.

The latest crime occurred April 17 in the parking lot of a convenience store on the 6200 block of West Broadway in Brooklyn Park. Huff-Jones is accused of meeting up with another man he had chatted with using the Snapchat handle "Sosa" to sell him a gun.

When the buyer got into the teen's vehicle, the teen and a driver of that vehicle pulled out Glock handguns with extended magazines. The buyer gave the teen $500, then got out of the car. The teen then shot the buyer in the leg. Huff-Jones was arrested April 28 and had a .40-caliber Glock handgun that was allegedly used in a separate incident in Coon Rapids.

His next court appearance is set for Dec. 15.