30-year sentence for man who fatally shot former St. Paul Central High School basketball star

A man has received a 30-year term for a gun battle on a St. Paul street that killed a former St. Paul Central High School basketball star.

Xavion T. Bell, of St. Paul, was sentenced Monday in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree intentional murder in connection with the death of Dion Lamarr Ford Jr., 21, on March 31, 2022, outside a grocery store in the North End.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Bell is expected to serve nearly 19 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

In February 2019 as a senior, Ford recorded his 1,000th career point at Central while scoring a game-high 18 points during his team's victory over St. Paul's Johnson Senior High School. "Only the greatest can get it, so I'm really proud," he told the Star Tribune.

Ford later attended Casper (Wyo.) College, where he played basketball in 2020-21. At the time of his death, Ford was attending Augsburg University in Minneapolis on an academic scholarship.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were called to the Maryland Supermarket around 9:15 p.m. and found Ford down in the intersection of Arundel Street and Maryland Avenue with a gunshot wound to the head and "a handgun partially in his hand." He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Spent shell casings surrounded Ford, who had a permit in his wallet to carry the firearm. Police said 911 callers heard as many as 40 gunshots.

Police reviewed the supermarket's surveillance video and saw Bell exiting a vehicle and following Ford from the supermarket to a nearby restaurant, which Ford left carrying a plastic bag.

The video then showed Ford approaching his car with the bag when he was confronted by Bell. Ford dropped the bag, pulled out a firearm and shot Bell, who returned fire as he fell to the ground. The two continued to exchange gunfire until Ford stopped moving, at which point Bell fired 13 more shots at Ford.

A man identified as VJ carried Bell to a vehicle. Medics then took Bell to Regions Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his back.

Also serving time in prison for his role in the shootout is 20-year-old D'Angelo S. Dampier, Bell's brother, who fired five to six rounds outside the supermarket. Dampier admitted to investigators after his arrest that he fired his 9 mm handgun until it was empty, but he denied shooting Ford. He also said he took Bell's gun with him when he fled the scene.

Jurors convicted Dampier in October 2022 of second-degree murder, aiding an offender and other related felony counts. In February, he received a sentence of roughly 24½ years. He is expected to serve about 16 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.