A former teammate of North High basketball player Brian Cole contradicted the prosecution's theory Wednesday about who shot him at the 2006 Juneteenth celebration.
Cole case gets complicated
A teammate testified that someone else, not the defendant, shot Brian Cole, a former North High basketball player.
February 28, 2008 at 5:34AM
Testifying by telephone for the defense in Hennepin County District Court, Rickey Batsell-Parks said that Lincoln "Double L Mookie" Caldwell and not the defendant, Kirk Harrison, fired into the crowd, killing Cole.
Batsell-Parks said he was near Cole with a group of people huddling under a tree to get out of the rain when the drive-by shooting occurred at 8th and Penn Avenues N. They ran, but got barely a couple of steps before Cole was killed, he said. The teammates were not the intended targets, but some of their friends there were members of the 1-9 Block Dipset gang.
Harrison faces a first-degree murder charge in a trial before Judge Jack Nordby, who will render the verdict.
Prosecutors say Harrison was the shooter and Caldwell was the driver, and the two Lowry-Lyndale gang members were looking for revenge on the 1-9s. Harrison's brother, Carnel Harrison, tearfully testified against him earlier.
Testifying for the defense, Batsell-Parks said he saw Caldwell driving, leaning out the window and aiming the gun at a person named "Cash."
"There is no doubt in your mind it was Double L Mookie pointing the gun as the car drove by?" defense attorney Emmett Donnelly said. Batsell-Parks replied, "No, sir."
But when it was Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Hilary Caligiuri's turn to question him, he acknowledged he first told a different story. In his first interview in June 2006, he said Caldwell was the driver and he didn't see a shooter. In a second interview, in December 2006, Batsell-Parks said Caldwell was shooting from the back seat, and he didn't know the driver.
Donnelly asked him whether he left things out of his first statement because he was scared.
"I really didn't want to be involved with the case. I didn't want to die, too. I felt my life was in jeopardy," Batsell-Parks said. He said he now attends college out of state.
Caldwell is expected to go to trial in April.
Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747
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