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.
The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
City Council members criticized MPD for their handling of the case, expressing outrage at the department’s inability to protect a resident “from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
The Moturis have reported to police at least 19 incidents of vandalism, property destruction, theft, harassment, hate speech and other verbal threats, including threats of assault, involving Sawchak since last fall — shorty after the couple moved in. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
Over the weekend, as frustration continued to boil over about the lack of a resolution in the case, several more council members released statements demanding that MPD move in to make an arrest.
“Our Chief of Police is hiding behind excuses, and our Mayor…is just hiding,” Council Member Emily Koski wrote on X.
Less than two hours later, from the scene of an unrelated fatal shooting at a homeless encampment, O’Hara acknowledged that his police force failed to protect Moturi and issued an apology.
A former tire store in Brooklyn Center has been repurposed into the state’s newest vehicle inspection station, where owners of salvage vehicles can get them examined to ensure they have been repaired with proper parts and are safe to drive.
The Department of Vehicle Services (DVS) signed a 10-year lease on the Big-O Tires building on Xerxes Avenue across from the former Brookdale Shopping Center. After spending several months retrofitting the shop, officials held a ribbon-cutting on Friday to mark its official opening.
Motorists who have bought salvage vehicles — those involved in crashes, damaged by weather or for any other reason declared a total loss by insurance companies — and had them repaired can bring them for a checkup at the new station. Under Minnesota law, motorists driving salvage vehicles must have them inspected to ensure their wheels are safe to drive and to renew their license tabs.
That has not been an easy task as the demand for salvage vehicles has ballooned in recent years, said Bob Jacobson, the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, salvage vehicles became popular since new and used car prices shot way up, and people found it cheaper to buy cars that needed major repairs, Jacobson said.
The DVS had only one metro area inspection station, on Starkey Street in St. Paul. And with just two bays for vehicles, availability was limited. By moving to Brooklyn Center and closing the St. Paul location, the DVS will have five bays, and each will be able to handle 18 vehicles a day. That is 90 vehicles on every weekday.
So far this year, the DVS has inspected more than 23,060 salvage vehicles across the state, which represents a 32% increase compared to the same 10-month period last year. In the past two weeks, inspectors in the Twin Cities have looked at 588 vehicles, DVS data shows.
Those numbers reflect the growing number of salvage vehicles on state roads and the need for more inspectors and longer hours at locations to verify vehicles were repaired using legal parts, said Greg Loper, director of the DVS Inspection Program.
Besides Brooklyn Center, which will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, the DVS operates eight other inspection sites across Minnesota. But most are overbooked and understaffed. That is changing.
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.
Political upheaval in Japan after snap election leaves no clear winner
Minneapolis Police arrest suspect in neighbor shooting following late-night standoff
Famous mama grizzly bear killed by car “stepped right out into the road” before collision, Wyoming officials say
Political upheaval in Japan after snap election leaves no clear winner
Minneapolis Police arrest suspect in neighbor shooting following late-night standoff