Suspect arrested in drive-by shooting that paralyzed 12-year-old

Authorities filed charges Tuesday against a 19-year-old woman who they say drove the car used in a south Minneapolis drive-by shooting that left a 12-year-old girl paralyzed.

Casey Michelle Walters, formerly of Crystal, admitted to police that she drove the Kia sedan from which a shot was fired last Nov. 12 near 34th Street and Chicago Avenue S., according to a criminal complaint charging her with drive-by shooting and first-degree assault, both felonies.

The shot, fired by someone leaning out the car's sunroof, struck Guadalupe Galeno Hernandez, now 13, in the neck, severing her spinal cord.

A complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court said Walters knows gang members, dated someone police believe to be a member of the Surenõs 13 gang and had the number "13" tattooed on her neck.

Walters had been living with her mother in Indiana in recent weeks. She came to the Hennepin County court office at Southdale mall in Edina on Friday to resolve a misdemeanor warrant over a traffic incident. Minneapolis police were waiting for her there.

It's not clear how police were originally tipped to Walters, but court paperwork filed Tuesday said a "known juvenile male" believed to be the shooter was arrested last month while driving her car.

The alleged shooter, who was not named in court filings, is a youth who has had past run-ins with the police, said Minneapolis police Lt. Mike Fossum. He said he could not comment on whether the youth was in custody.

Walters was expected to make her first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Walters told police that on the night of the shooting, she was driving south on Chicago Avenue with three young men in her car, one in the passenger seat and two in back.

As they neared a group of boys and girls walking along the sidewalk, one of the passengers in the back stood up, popped his head and shoulders out of the sunroof and yelled "trece" -- Spanish for "13." He fired a shot into the group, the complaint said, then dropped back into the car and told Walters to drive away, the complaint said.

Walters told police that others in the car were angry and asked the shooter why he fired. He responded that people in the group were his "enemies," the complaint said. Police earlier said that they didn't believe that anyone walking with Guadalupe Hernandez was in a gang.

The bullet entered her neck and passed through her windpipe before severing her spinal cord. The complaint said that as she lay on the ground after she shooting, she said that she couldn't move her arms and legs and asked, "Am I going to be OK?"

Matt McKinney • 612-217-1747