Prosecutors have charged the father of a teenager accused in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old London Bean, alleging that the man encouraged his son to retaliate against a neighbor's family for perceived bullying.
Letterance Grady, 40, faces charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, aiding and abetting attempted second-degree murder and harboring a fugitive, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Hennepin County District Court.
Grady was arrested Thursday and booked into the Hennepin County jail, where he was being held on $1 million bond. He is expected to make his initial court appearance on Monday. No attorney was listed in court records.
He was arrested four days after his son, Jeremiah Grady, turned himself in to police. Authorities said that Jeremiah's mother called the Rev. Jerry McAfee, of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, to arrange the arrest to ensure it went smoothly.
Bean was shot Sept. 8 outside Jeremiah Grady's apartment building at N. 8th and Aldrich avenues in north Minneapolis after getting into a fight with another boy, believed to be Grady's younger brother.
According to court documents, Grady fired off several shots, two of which struck Bean in the chest and abdomen. The shooting apparently stemmed from a simmering neighborhood dispute.
In the weeks after Bean's killing, Letterance Grady spoke several times with homicide investigators. He initially denied being present at the time of the shooting, authorities said, reportedly telling police that he only learned about it from his children's mother and that before the shooting Jeremiah had asked to borrow his vehicle.
Court documents say Letterance Grady described being told how Jeremiah's siblings had been jumped the day before, and that there had been "an ongoing feud and bullying" between some neighborhood children.
