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In 2019, when Minneapolis was still "safe," 39-year-old Steve Markey was killed in an attempted carjacking by two juveniles, Jered Ohsman (16) and Husayn Braveheart (15 and 357 days).
Steve was sitting in his car near Bauhaus Brew Labs and the Ideal Diner at about 4:45 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. The young men approached his parked car from behind with bandannas over their faces and shot Steve while he was still in the car.
While Steve, my cousin, sat there, scared and confused and bleeding to death, the two young men ran to a backpack of supplies they had hidden nearby. They changed their clothes and changed their weapons and then proceeded to carjack more people and lead police on a high-speed chase.
If you have ever arrived somewhere early and waited in your car, maybe returned an email or wrapped up a phone call, you were doing the exact same thing as Steve. You were just luckier than he was. The only thing he did wrong was to be in the path of these two.
The pandemic slowed the wheels of justice, but in 2020, Ohsman was tried as an adult and sentenced to 22 years in prison. He is expected to serve about 13.5 years in custody and the rest on supervised release.
The question of whether to certify Braveheart as an adult went to the Minnesota State Supreme Court. The answer was a resounding "Yes" from that esteemed body.