A suburban teenager shot up a Metro Transit bus in north Minneapolis, wounding three riders, and a few days later killed a 19-year-old on the same side of the city, charges say.
Jeairamiya Dewray Omar-Dear, 17, of Brooklyn Park, is charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder stemming from the shooting of Ashantez T. McCoy on Dec. 23 in the 1600 block of Thomas Avenue N. as well as three counts of felony assault in connection with the gunfire that struck a bus on Dec. 19 and wounded three people at the intersection of 36th and Penn avenues N.
Omar-Dear was arrested on the day of the fatal shooting and remains in custody ahead of a hearing on Dec. 29 in juvenile court. Prosecutors have notified the court of its intention to have Omar-Dear tried in adult court. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
“Another family has forever been impacted by senseless violence,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement released shortly after McCoy’s death. “Settling disputes with a firearm is completely unacceptable.”
At the time of both shootings, Omar-Dear was on probation after pleading guilty to attempted murder for his role in the shooting of a man in November 2024 at a bus stop at Lowry and Emerson avenues N. in Minneapolis. The victim said he believed he was being targeted in retaliation for an earlier shooting.
According to charges in this month’s crimes:
Video surveillance showed Omar-Dear and an unspecified number of accomplices on the bus. They attempted to conceal their identities once a 21-year-old man, the subject of their interest, boarded.
Omar-Dear walked toward the front of the bus and started shooting. He then got off the bus and fired several more shots into a window.
