A felon barred from having a gun was charged with shooting and wounding two people outside a popular Hennepin Avenue club around closing time over the weekend.
Travion J. Jones, 28, of Roseville, was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court with three counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Jones remains jailed ahead of his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.
After filing the charges, the county attorney's office announced it will seek a particularly lengthy sentence, if convicted, on the grounds that Jones' actions "represented a greater than normal danger to the safety of others and the offense was committed in a particularly serious way.
County Attorney Mike Freeman said, "If we cannot stop this senseless gunfire, we will at least use all of the tools available to us to try to send these shooters away for longer periods of time."
According to the criminal complaint:
About 2 a.m. Sunday, Jones fired shots in the parking next to the Gay 90s club on Hennepin Avenue near 4th Avenue. A security guard and police chased after Jones and quickly arrested him. They also found a gun that he dropped before his capture.
The incident began to escalate when Jones shoved a man in the parking lot and the security guard ordered him to leave.
Eventually, the guard discharged pepper spray at Jones, who responded by pulling out a gun and shooting at the guard, then into a crowd of people.
