Richfield man sentenced for conspiring to burn down Target HQ during downtown riot

June 2, 2021 at 9:43PM
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City surveillance cameras show a suspect alleged to Shador Tommie Cortez Jackson with a shirt over his head looking at damage at Target headquarters on Nicollet Mall. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A judge sentenced a Richfield man to two years and nine months in prison Wednesday for conspiring to set fire to Target's corporate headquarters in Minneapolis last August.

Shador Tommie Cortez Jackson, 24, was among a group of hundreds who gathered downtown on Aug. 26 following online rumors that police had shot and killed a Black man on Nicollet Mall. Police quickly released footage showing the man, a suspect in a murder case, had shot himself when officers came to arrest him. But the false reports had already surged through the crowd, and many began looting in the downtown corridor.

Jackson used a construction sign to break through the glass doors of Target's corporate building and then intentionally set a fire on a counter inside the mailroom. He also attempted to light a second fire on cardboard boxes. He was indicted last December, and pleaded guilty in January.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz passed down the sentence to Jackson in federal court, which includes two years of supervised release once he gets out.

about the writer

about the writer

Andy Mannix

Minneapolis crime and policing reporter

Andy Mannix covers Minneapolis crime and policing for the Star Tribune. 

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