Star Tribune
Teen accused in Zaria McKeever’s slaying now charged as adult, plea deal on table
After years of confidential negotiations, the teenager accused of killing 23-year-old Zaria McKeever during a 2022 Brooklyn Park home invasion has been charged as an adult, signaling that a tentative plea deal is on the table.
The case now moves from juvenile to adult court, meaning previously sealed court records will be made public. And more than two years after the deadly break-in on Nov. 8, 2022, the accused killer’s name is publicly known: Foday Kamara, 17, of Brooklyn Park. The Star Tribune doesn’t typically name juvenile defendants unless they have been certified as an adult.
Judge Todd Fellman on Tuesday ordered Kamara to stand trial as an adultfor felony charges of aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder and aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony of first-degree burglary with the use of a firearm.
Although details of the potential plea are not yet known, prosecutors have long sought Kamara’s testimony against McKeever’s ex-boyfriend, Erick Haynes, who is accused of orchestrating the attack. Haynes has a history of violating domestic no-contact orders against McKeever, the mother of his child. In the weeks preceding her death, investigators found that Haynes repeatedly stalked and harassed her.
Kamara remains in custody at the juvenile detention center and prosecutors have requested a high bail amount once he is transferred to jail. He makes his first appearance in adult court Wednesday afternoon.
The adult charges secure a hard-fought victory for state prosecutors one year after Attorney General Keith Ellison removed the case from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty amid intense public backlash.
At Ellison’s request, Gov. Tim Walz took the extremely rare step of reassigning the case, after Walz and Ellison agreed with McKeever’s family that the initial plea offer was too lenient. Moriarty offered Kamara, who was 15 at the time of the crime, a deal to avoid adult prison and adult certification by serving time at a juvenile detention facility.
Attorneys have negotiated Kamara’s case since the prosecution changed hands. His older brother’s case closed up more quickly; John Kamara accepted a plea deal offer from Moriarty before the state intervened.
“It does feel like a little more justice,” said McKeever’s sister, Tiffynnie Epps. “It’s still not the max he can receive — that’s what we wanted.”
Hennepin County District Judge Tanya Bransford accepted a plea agreement for then-17-year-old John Kamara that would result in about a two-year sentence at the juvenile correctional facility in Red Wing and extended probation until his 21st birthday for his role in the shooting.
Prosecutors originally moved to certify the brothers as adults so they could stand trial for murder. But Moriarty’s office abruptly changed course, offering the teens a chance to avoid a lengthy adult prison sentence in exchange for testifying against Haynes.
Officials accused Haynes of enlisting the Kamara brothers to carry it out. Hayne’s sister and her now-husband are charged as accomplices after the fact.
All adults were order to stand trial jointly. Haynes attorney, Robert Paule, declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday. Neither Kamara’s defense attorney nor the Attorney General’s office could be immediately reached for comment.
While a legal conclusion to the case has been slow in coming, the police investigation into the fatal home invasion was swift. Brooklyn Park police announced within hours of the murder that two teens and three adults had been arrested. They were all charged by Hennepin County prosecutors two days later.
Botched break-in
In the early morning hours of Nov. 8, 2022, Haynes drove the Kamara brothers to the Eden Park apartment complex on a mission to kill McKeever’s new boyfriend, charges say.
Haynes gave the boys a firearm he’d purchased, then ordered them inside. Under the cover of darkness, charges say, the 15- and 17-year old boys kicked in the front door, confronted McKeever and briefly argued before Foday unleashed a flurry of shots — cutting down a woman he barely knew.
Nine rounds struck McKeever. Another hit the elder brother in the leg.
McKeever’s boyfriend, who was in the bathroom at the time of the shooting, jumped out a second-story window and ran for help. Surveillance video, witness statements and physical evidence helped tie them to the crime scene.
Apartment security footage captured the boys fleeing the scene, one limping as the other helps him back to the getaway car.
In an interview with investigators following his arrest, Foday admitted to every element of the botched break-in. Haynes gave them the gun with instructions to deal with McKeever’s boyfriend, noting that if she “caused any problems” they should “shoot her in the leg,” according to the criminal complaint.
When the Kamara boys burst through the door, she told them to leave. Foday alleged that he “didn’t want to hurt anyone,” charges say, but just wanted the boyfriend to come outside. She attempted to stop them from getting down the hall, eventually grabbing a knife. That’s when he shot her.
This is a breaking news story. Check back at Startribune.com for updates.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
Star Tribune
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
”We are looking at a health care crisis in America that is affecting people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the audience to ”follow your gut” and ”do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houston, and she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity clout that surpasses anything that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been able to marshal this year. But there’s no guarantee that will help Harris in the close race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite firing up her crowds with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to harness star power for her campaign.
”Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is scheduled to hold a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go trick-or-treating in the suburbs, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.
Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.
Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Q Bear DJed the party.
KB Brown and his grandson Zakari, 3. Brown founded Project Refocus, a nonprofit dealing with youth mentorship, security along the West Broadway business corridor and opioid response in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently purchased land in Bemidji to redevelop into a retreat center for gun violence survivors.
He in turn invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games such as “NBA Jam” and “Big Buck Hunter.” The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiancé Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four kids and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 shut everything down. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.
Pull and Pay owner Dominique Howard showed kids, squeezed elbow to elbow, how to play “Big Buck Hunter” inside his homebuilt mobile arcade. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member attending with her two-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.
“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting his grandson Zakari (a 3-year-old Chucky with candy-smeared cheeks) on one arm. “Everybody here is from the community.”
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
North Minneapolis Halloween party for kids brings families together
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan