St. Paul man acquitted of New Year's Day murder facing felony gun, drug charges

A St. Paul man acquitted of a New Year's Day slaying is facing multiple felonies for a shooting and recent traffic stop that led to the discovery of a gun and more than 1,700 fentanyl pills.

Bernard Augusta Mack, 28, was charged this week in Hennepin County District Court in two separate cases and remained in custody following his arrest Saturday in Minneapolis. The new charges accuse Mack of committing a drive-by shooting in Uptown in the weeks leading up to the New Year's fatal shooting he was acquitted of by a jury in June.

Within months of the acquittal, Mack was charged in October with illegal gun possession and drug sale. During the recent traffic stop, charges say he illegally possessed a handgun again along with $2,500 cash, the pills, plastic baggies and two cellphones; one phone revealed multiple cash transactions in the hours preceding his arrest.

"This quantity of fentanyl is extraordinary for a street-level drug arrest and could have harmed or killed countless people," said Minneapolis Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto in a statement ahead of a news conference Thursday on Mack's arrest.

Park police tried stopping Mack on an active warrant in Elliot Park around 8 p.m. Dec. 23. He eventually pulled over, and charges say the vehicle slowly rolled forward as Mack and three passengers jumped out and ran.

As he tried climbing a fence near homes on 19th Street E., Mack fell to the ground and was placed under arrest. Charges say police found two baggies full of blue pills on the other side of the fence and the cash in his pocket. Police found more blue pills in Mack's vehicle and a .45-caliber extended handgun magazine in the trunk.

Charges say that forensic testing of the gun may lead to additional charges.

Prosecutors charged Mack on Wednesday with first-degree aggravated controlled substances, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years due to aggravating factors. Mack's aggravating factors stem from a 2021 felony firearm conviction that prohibits him from possessing guns, and evidence suggesting distribution of substantially large quantities of controlled substances, charges say.

On Thursday, prosecutors filed another case against Mack: second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, which carries a three-year minimum sentence. In that case, Mack is accused of shooting a female passenger on Dec. 10, 2022, outside the since-closed Firehouse bar on Lagoon Avenue in Uptown.

Charges say the woman was leaving the bar with a man when a caravan of three vehicles pulled up and gunshots rang out. The man called 911 and noticed bullet holes in his car and a large amount of blood in the passenger seat where the woman was shot but survived.

Video surveillance showed a person raising their arm out the back passenger window of a car in the caravan and appearing to point a pistol at the northwest corner of Fremont and Lake avenues.

A witness told police that two weeks before the shooting, Mack threatened him with a gun, charges say. On the day of the shooting, the witness said he was leaving his Uptown apartment when a group of alleged gang members Mack was associated with confronted him. Mack brandished a gun, charges say, and another member hit him in the head.

The witness walked toward the bar to talk to the man who was driving the vehicle struck by gunfire. The witness said he believes he was targeted because he's in a rival gang.

Three weeks after this shooting, police responded to the New Year's shooting that marked the first homicide of 2023.

Mack was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and unlawful weapon possession in the killing of Deleon Davis, 28, also of St. Paul. Charges say that Davis was dating Mack's ex-girlfriend and they were all at the same New Year's party in a warehouse located in the 4400 block of N. Lyndale Avenue.

Davis died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Mack told police he didn't see the shooter.

Defense attorney Mike Padden represented him at trial. Padden said that Mack's ex-girlfriend was the only person who pinpointed him as the shooter, and she was not a credible witness.

"If she saw my guy brandishing a gun, why didn't anyone else?" Padden said in a phone interview Thursday. According to charges, the security guard who was also struck by the rapid gunfire around 3:30 a.m. said he didn't see the shooter in the chaotic scene.

The ballistics evidence in the autopsy report also showed the shots that killed Davis came from the right, Padden said, and Mack was standing in front of him.

Padden said that he will also be representing Mack on these new cases, beginning with a first court appearance Friday.

"All I can say at this time is that he will be pleading not guilty," Padden said.