16-year-old pleads guilty to weapons count days after 3 teens shot at St. Paul funeral reception

A 16-year-old pleaded guilty Tuesday to a weapons charge in connection with the shooting of three teenagers last week as they left a funeral reception for a student stabbed to death at Harding High School in St. Paul.

The teen entered his plea in Ramsey County juvenile court on the same day he was charged with possessing a handgun modified to be a fully automatic pistol and being a minor in possession of a firearm.

Appearing in court via video hookup from the juvenile detention center, he agreed to plead guilty to the second count. The teenager was arrested Friday night with a Glock .40-caliber pistol near the site of the shooting at the El Rio Vista Recreation Center.

The agreement calls for the first count to be dismissed.

Defense attorney Amanda Weitekamp appeared in court, but there was no parent or legal guardian on hand. Judge JaPaul Harris suggested delaying the proceeding for a day to allow more time to have a parent or guardian present, but the teen declined the offer.

Harris scheduled the next hearing for March 14 to determine where the teen will be confined. The prosecution wants him sent to the state's juvenile correctional center in Red Wing.

The charges, spelled out in a juvenile petition, offered no motive for the shooting or alleged who pulled the trigger. Also, no mention of the gunfire was made in open court by the judge, prosecutor George Joyer or Weitekamp, whose questioning of her client about Friday night started with when police caught up to him.

No one else has been arrested or charged as of Tuesday afternoon, the County Attorney's Office said.

The County Attorney's Office also said it decided against asking to have the case moved to adult court. The Star Tribune generally does not identify defendants who are younger than age 18 unless prosecutors disclose an intention to have the case moved to adult court.

Police were called to the rec center shortly before 8 p.m., when someone in a Hyundai Sonata fired into the building. The three teenage boys who were struck by the gunfire were taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with noncritical wounds.

A longstanding feud between two rival groups in St. Paul — dating back to the killing of 16-year-old Antwan Watson last fall — is thought to have motivated the shooting, said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

On Feb. 14, 16-year-old Nosakhere K. Holmes was charged as a juvenile with second-degree unintentional murder in the stabbing death of Harding High sophomore Devin Scott, 15, four days earlier.

According to Tuesday's charges involving Friday's rec center shooting:

Police were dispatched to the rec center in the 100 block of E. Robie Street about 7:40 p.m. concerning three teenagers wounded from a drive-by shooting.

Within a minute of the gunfire, police were alerted to a two-vehicle crash in the 400 block of Clinton Avenue, less than quarter-mile away. Officers saw shell casings in the Sonata, which police learned had been stolen.

A woman and a 6-year-old child in the other vehicle received medical attention. She told police that she saw three occupants "digging around" in the Sonata, grab two guns and flee the scene.

Officers arrested one of the teenagers about a half-mile from the crash. The teen, who gave a fake name, was carrying a loaded .40-caliber handgun in his pocket. The gun was equipped with a "switch" that makes it fully automatic.

A day after the drive-by shooting, two people were killed and three wounded by gunfire after a memorial event for a different person in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood. The two were identified as Troy Kennedy, 37, of St. Paul and Larry Jiles Jr., 34, of Hugo. No arrests have been announced.

That shooting happened about 5:15 p.m. on the 500 block of N. Dale Street, outside Kings Crossing by Episcopal Homes, a subsidized apartment complex for seniors. A large group had met inside the community room for a memorial.

The shooting at El Rio Vista Rec Center is the second incident of violence outside a St. Paul rec center this year. In January, an employee of the Jimmy Lee Rec Center allegedly shot and wounded a teenager in the parking lot following a fight. The Jimmy Lee Rec Center was closed for weeks, reopening Feb. 18.