Feds use weapons charge to arrest man linked to two Minneapolis homicides in 2022

A "prime suspect" in last month's killing of a man previously charged with stealing French bulldog puppies for ransom is also being linked to another shooting death that has gone unsolved for nearly two years, according to newly filed federal charges.

Four spent shell casings found at the scene of a Minneapolis shooting homicide in March 2022 underpin federal charges against a man now also suspected of taking part in last month's surge in gun violence in the city.

Prosecutors charged Deandre Franklin in a criminal complaint last week accusing him of illegally possessing four 10mm cartridge casings found near the body of Timothy Brown in a Minneapolis apartment building in 2022.

Forensic scientists at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) later reported in May 2022 that Franklin was a "major contributor" of DNA located on the four spent casings. Franklin is barred from possessing firearms or ammunition based on multiple previous felony convictions — including two separate federal convictions as a felon in possession of a firearm, in 2013 and 2018, respectively.

According to an affidavit filed last week by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Franklin is also a "prime suspect" in the Dec. 19 shooting death of Mikiyel Patton, who died at the scene of a shots-fired call on the 900 block of Newton Avenue N. Patton, 37, of Minneapolis, had previously been charged with stealing five French bulldog puppies from a home south of the Twin Cities and holding them for ransom. There has been no word on whether Patton's death was connected to the dogs being stolen.

At the time, according to Minneapolis police, investigators believed suspects were hiding in a nearby abandoned house but a SWAT team found it to be empty. Officers found Patton dead in an SUV, according to a search warrant affidavit police filed in court last month seeking permission to collect evidence from the vehicle.

Video surveillance from across the street showed the SUV arriving and parking, the affidavit read. Several gunshots and muzzle flashes were picked up on video coming from inside the vehicle, the court filing continued.

"The driver got out of the vehicle and fled on foot, and another male walked up to the front passenger door and shot as well," the state court affidavit read.

Franklin has been held in Sherburne County jail on the new federal charges since Dec. 27. He made his initial appearance on Friday in Minneapolis, where Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster ordered Franklin to remain detained pending a Thursday detention and preliminary hearing.

Kenneth Udoibok, Franklin's attorney, said in an interview Tuesday that his client's "presumption of innocence is still intact."

"I don't think that there will be sufficient evidence that he was involved in a homicide," Udoibok said. He added that although the case remained in its infancy he didn't believe that federal prosecutors planned to indict Franklin on "claims beyond what we have now."

"There is no weapon, only shells," Udoibok said. "That's quite a stretch though."

Messages have been left seeking comment from Minneapolis police and the U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota.

Over the past decade, Minnesota law enforcement have increasingly deployed federal firearm charges against suspects believed to be involved in harder-to-prove murder investigations.

Franklin's DNA was discovered by Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension scientists who examined four spent cartridge casings left behind at the scene of Brown's shooting death in a Minneapolis apartment building in March 2022.

Minneapolis homicide unit sergeants later interviewed a man who said he drove Franklin and another person to that building on the afternoon of the shooting. As the man followed Franklin and the other person up a stairwell, he said he heard several gunshots as he approached a door that separated the stairwell from the third floor.

The man, identified only by his initials in the affidavit, said he later kicked Franklin out of his car after Franklin repeatedly stated that he "had to do it," which investigators believed was related to Brown's shooting.

ATF investigators installed a pole camera outside a Brooklyn Park home in November 2023 and observed Franklin come and go numerous times. They later noted that he at one point exited the same Honda CRV in which Patton was discovered last month.

According to the agent's affidavit filed last week, that same pole camera recorded Franklin and an unnamed co-conspirator cleaning out the tan Honda CRV with rags and used "what appeared to be a cleaning solution" to scrub all interior surfaces of the vehicle, the door handles and "any and all surfaces that may have been touched."

Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.