Robbers targeting cash apps suspected in over 100 cell phone thefts in downtown Minneapolis

Police believe a group of thieves has stolen more than 100 cellphones in downtown Minneapolis during the past 10 months in a violent scheme that targets victims' financial apps, according to a warrant application and charging documents filed against some of the suspected perpetrators.

The plot begins often around bar close with a member of the group approaching a target and asking if he can add his rap label's account to the person's Instagram, according to the documents, filed in Hennepin County district court in recent weeks. If the target hands over the phone, the suspects steal it and make purchases on the phone's apps or transfer the owner's money into their own accounts. If the owner resists, a member of the group assaults the victim.

Hennepin County prosecutors have charged 18-year-old Kevron Detrell Williams Gray and 21-year-old Jamarcus Robert Tucker, both living in St. Paul, with first-degree robbery and other felonies related to their alleged roles in the scheme. Tucker was charged last week with robbery and assault and is jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail. Gray was charged in late July and is jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Both men are implicated in taking part in the robbery that left the son of a former suburban police chief with a severe head injury last month, according to the charges.

Police say a group of six to eight strangers approached 24-year-old Jack Nadeau and his friend on July 24 outside the Gay 90s nightclub at bar close. After Nadeau handed Gray his phone, Gray slipped it to another member of the group. When Nadeau asked for it back, Gray said he didn't have it, according to charges and information detailed by police in the warrant application.

Surveillance video showed the two men arguing, and then another stepped in, pushed Nadeau and punched him, according to the charges. Nadeau fell unconscious to the sidewalk.

"He's got a traumatic brain injury," his father, Scott Nadeau, said in interview with the Star Tribune after the incident. "To have something like this happen over a phone, and then to know that this has been happening to other people, it's just — I don't even have words for it. It's just terrible."

Nadeau's cellphone apps were used in 20 fraudulent transactions totaling $1,760, including to purchase Nike shoes on Amazon, which were shipped to Gray's address, according to the charges.

Charges say Gray pulled the same scheme on two more victims two days later, and he punched one of them in the side of the face.

Surveillance footage showed Gray, Tucker and other suspects approach a victim after 3 a.m. outside the Brass Rail Lounge, also downtown. The victim is seen grabbing one of the suspects by the arm. Tucker puts his arm around the victim's chest, and then someone punched the victim. Tucker passed the phone to a woman later identified as his girlfriend, according to charges.

Using a phone locator feature, the victim's father traced the phone to Chicago. He also found a request for Zelle, a cash app, to transfer $1,800 to Tucker, according to the charges.

When police asked him about the Zelle transfer, Tucker suggested someone may have hacked his phone, according to the charges: "People can use other people's accounts, bro. That ain't nothing, to be honest with you."

In a separate interview, Tucker's girlfriend confirmed they were downtown that night, according to charges. She said Tucker "is 'always' downtown because he and his friends are always stealing phones" from people in the area.

In the past two years, Tucker has been convicted of charges of carrying a pistol without a permit in a public place, obstruction, felony threats of violence, two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, fleeing a police officer and theft. The complaint also references a second-degree assault for Gray when he was a juvenile.

The robberies are part of a trend of violent crime rising in downtown Minneapolis this summer as the area sees a return to some semblance of normalcy.

In the first two years of the pandemic, downtown saw the rate of homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults free-fall by about one-third to the lowest numbers in a decade. Still lower than in 2019, violent crime in the Downtown West neighborhood is up 25% from last year, driven by increases in robberies and aggravated assaults, according to data tracked by police.

Gunshot victims in the First Precinct, which encompasses downtown neighborhoods, have jumped more than 60% this year compared to last, the data show.

Staff reporters Paul Walsh and Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.