A 17-year-old from Brooklyn Park has been charged in adult court with murder in connection with the shooting of a 19-year-old man late last spring in Minneapolis.
Devonte M. Sletten was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Edwin L. Vaughn Jr., of Minneapolis, on May 29 in the 2600 block of N. Upton Avenue.
Sletten, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon. He remains jailed in lieu of $600,000 bail and is due back in court on Dec. 13. His attorney was not immediately available to comment on the allegations.
According to witnesses and video surveillance cited in the criminal complaint:
Vaughn and his girlfriend had been having arguments, and she told him that her brother "Mooka" wanted to fight him.
As the two are fighting surrounded by onlookers, three gunshots are heard, and Vaughn "reacts as if he has been shot," the complaint read.
Video from a home nearby captured Sletten standing next to a car and shooting three times before getting back in the vehicle and fleeing the scene. Vaughn died later at North Memorial Health Hospital.
Members of Vaughn's family told investigators that Sletten said in phone conversations that he started shooting to " 'clear the scene,' " the charges read.
