Mankato man charged in shooting at Minneapolis police, holding grandmother, child at gunpoint

A Mankato man is charged with shooting at Minneapolis police officers as they forced entry into an apartment where the suspect was holding a grandmother and child at gunpoint.

Kamau Evans, 31, was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court with eight counts of felony assault and an additional federal gun charge in U.S. District Court following the domestic violence incident early Sunday. He remained in custody at the Sherburne County jail on a U.S. Marshals hold.

State and federal charges detail what led up to the shooting. No officers were injured and they did not exchange gunfire with Evans. The 74-year-old grandmother, however, needed seven staples in her head from Evans pistol-whipping her.

According to the charges and police:

Officers learned an armed suspect was barricading himself in a Minneapolis residence where the grandmother and child said Evans threatened to kill them.

Evans shot in the direction of five officers while they went up a staircase in tactical formation. The lead officer carrying a ballistic shield announced "police department" and saw Evans pop around the corner and fire at them.

Evans jumped out a bathroom window and ran, but additional officers were in the backyard to arrest him. Police found the handgun that Evans was ineligible to have because of multiple felony convictions.

Federal charges also accuse Evans of unlawfully possessing a semiautomatic pistol. A Minneapolis police officer assigned to the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force wrote in the charges that Evans' ex-girlfriend had a temporary order for protection against him and together they shared a 1-year-old child.

She told police that Evans was mad because he couldn't see their child.

The ex-girlfriend called 911 around 3 a.m. that Sunday to report that Evans broke into her apartment in the Little Earth neighborhood in south Minneapolis. She was home with her baby and 19-year-old son when she heard a sliding glass door in her bedroom shatter.

She said Evans, wearing a black mask and dark clothing, entered her room but she grabbed her baby and fled with her older son. Evans then made his way to the home of his ex-girlfriend's mother in the 2300 block of W. Broadway in north Minneapolis.

The grandmother lives there with a 9-year-old child and one of her daughter's children, who is 20 years old.

The 20-year-old woke up to the sound of gunshots and broken glass. He called 911 and could hear someone walking up the stairs. He locked a bedroom door but Evans kicked it open while pointing a gun at him.

At that point the younger child ran into the grandmother's bedroom to hide in a closet. The 20-year-old said Evans hit him in the back of the head with the gun and put the gun in his mouth. Evans hit the grandmother with the gun after she tried to escape and also pointed the gun at the child.

Evans told the 20-year-old to call his mother and when she didn't answer he told him to call his father so he would come to the house.

There was a knock on the door, but it wasn't the father. It was police officers who pulled the 20-year-old out to safety and then forced entry.

After the arrest, they located the semiautomatic pistol, which federal charges say he illegally possessed as a convicted felon.

State charges against Evans include five counts of first-degree assault, three counts of second-degree assault and one felony count of illegal gun possession.

His criminal history includes multiple felony convictions out of Blue Earth County between 2012 and 2017, including: domestic assault, prohibited person in possession of a firearm, second-degree assault and first-degree aggravated robbery.

Evans made a brief federal court appearance Wednesday and will return Jan. 23. His next state court appearance is Feb. 22.

Star Tribune staff writer Stephen Montemayor contributed to this story.