Rocked by gun violence, a Minneapolis neighborhood remembers fixture slain on his birthday

The southwest Minneapolis neighborhood of Windom has been wreathed with blue and green ribbons since the Annunciation Catholic School mass shooting last month. On Saturday, there was a gathering to mourn another neighbor lost to gun violence this summer — beloved local DJ Justin Marshall, aka Juice.

Marshall was a neighborhood fixture shot multiple times while riding his bike in the early morning hours of July 25, after celebrating his 37th birthday at Mortimer’s Bar. He worked security at Kowalski’s Markets and DJ’d every Saturday at F45 gym, just around the corner from Annunciation.

This weekend marked a month and a half since Marshall was killed. A core group of his friends from the gym held a fundraiser for his family, who are still without clues about the shooter’s identity.

It’s the lack of information, and the compounding tragedies affecting their southwest community, that has made Marshall’s seemingly inexplicable death particularly hard to bear, they said.

“He’s not a confrontational guy, he doesn’t have enemies, he’s not affiliated with the wrong crowd,” said Marshall’s friend Chris Weewoo, aka DJ Wee-Woo. “He doesn’t owe anybody money. Like, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Marshall’s only sibling, Jazzy Cage, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that while police warned the family they wouldn’t get any information about the ongoing investigation for fear of tainting the evidence, the lack of updates has been agonizing. In lieu of knowing if there are any viable suspects, or if a case is close to being sent to the county attorney for possible charges, family and friends have been trying to glean what they can from social media.

“Of course, people are dying every day, so I get it, and I’m trying to give them grace, but it’s my brother,” Cage said. “I think that they’re working hard to make sure that our case doesn’t get dismissed ... but it’s still really hard to have nothing, and then to trust that you’re doing something.”

The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond on Monday to questions about the investigation’s progress.

Dozens of neighbors attended the fundraiser, representing friends he’d made from social scenes and interests. Marshall was unapologetic in his nonconformity, loving anime, Legos and gaming, ’90s and 2000s pop music, his kickball rec league, working out and goofing off, friends said.

Marshall had an authenticity that appealed to a lot of people, said his friend Megan Prebeg.

“I don’t take anything for granted, but you really don’t understand the weight that comes with it when something happens to somebody you love so much, and somebody who didn’t deserve this,” she said. “He did not have enemies. I don’t know anybody who did not like Juice.”