Star Tribune
Man charged in killing of estranged girlfriend at Linden Hills apartment
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged a man with murder in the fatal shooting of a 43-year-old mother and small business owner at a Linden Hills apartment Sunday night.
Johnny Leroy Brown, 50, is accused of killing Kesha Latrice Moore, resident of the Cove at Linden Hills apartments in the 4200 block of Sheridan Avenue S. She had asked Brown to move out of her place after several months of living together, according to a search warrant. Moore lived there for a year, and the warrant said their relationship was rocky.
Brown called 911 and said he was in an altercation with his girlfriend, she pulled a gun and it went off, according to newly filed charges in Hennepin County District Court. Investigators cast doubt on Brown’s claims. Brown said the woman was dead and provided their location, but charges say the apartment was locked when police arrived. Officers forced entry and found Moore with a gunshot wound to her head.
Twenty minutes later, Brown called 911 again and said he was ready to turn himself in and provided his location, but pings on his cellphone did not place him in the area.
As family and friends mourned Moore, Brown was on the run until his arrest Tuesday night.
Brown turned off his phone after making the 911 calls, and the next day he went to a phone store to get a new number, charges say. Investigators tracked this new number to find Brown near 18th and Newton avenues N. in Minneapolis. He was in a vehicle with his new girlfriend at the time of his arrest.
He remains in custody and makes a first court appearance Thursday. An attorney for him is not yet listed.
Court records suggest the murder weapon hasn’t been found and that Brown has made conflicting statements to investigators.
According to the charges of second-degree murder and unlawful gun possession:
Moore was the registered owner of a 9mm handgun that was missing along with her Lexus sedan when police arrived. A single 9mm discharged cartridge casing was found in her apartment.
Brown admitted to stealing the gun and vehicle.Police filed the search warrant to search the Lexus for evidence.
Moore’s cousin told police that Brown had called and admitted to killing Moore. Brown and Moore’s relationship had been rocky, the cousin said, which is why she asked him to move out.
Brown told investigators that he got into an argument with Moore because she accused him of cheating on her. Brown said Moore was pointing a gun at him when he turned around after making a drink in her apartment. He said he took the gun away and it went off when he accidentally bumped the trigger.
Investigators say this claim is false because that particular firearm, a Luger EC9s, has a trigger pull of 5 pounds, 5 ounces. Brown also denied moving the body, but a large blood smear indicates that Moore had been moved.
His accounts of where and when he called 911 were also inconsistent. He said he threw his phone out the window to elude police and couldn’t remember where the gun was because he was drunk. Police scoured the area of 44th and Humboldt, where Brown said he tossed the gun, but a firearm was never found.
In two phone calls made from the police station, Brown said someone set him up. He also called his new girlfriend to deny that he was in a relationship with Moore, according to phone records.
Brown’s criminal history in Minnesota includes three convictions in state court for assault, three for drug offenses, two for disorderly conduct and one for theft.
Federally, he was sentenced in February 2007 for illegal weapons possession and then again in May 2015 for escaping from custody while serving time for the weapons offense.
Brown has been prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition since 2001 when he was convicted of second-degree assault.
Six orders for protection and restraining orders have been issued against Brown between 2001 and 2021.
Rose DeCoteau said Moore, her longtime friend and extended family member, was a grandmother, mother, daughter and sister. “She was kindhearted, funny [and] a believer in education moving [people] forward in life.”
Moore’s LinkedIn account lists her as the executive director of Resilient Lives LLC, a home and community-based service provider for Minnesota seniors and those with disabilities. Her biography page says she held a master’s degree in health administration from Governors State University and enjoyed playing Scrabble.
Moore was “just a loving individual,” DeCoteau said. “A week before Christmas is a tragedy.”
Star Tribune staff writers Paul Walsh and Liz Sawyer contributed to this story.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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