MINNEAPOLIS — Our community has rallied in support of our first responders following two high-profile killings since the beginning of the year.
Three dead in Burnsville in February, and a Minneapolis officer shot dead in May. The shooter was definitely a criminal who wasn’t allowed to have a gun. So what is being done about the problem? And who is feeling the impact the most?
LaTanya Black is deeply grieving the death of her daughter Nia.
“These are things I kept because when your child or a loved one is gone, all you have are memories,” Black said.
The professional makeup artist was only 23 when a criminal who should not have had a gun tragically died taken her lifein 2020, shooting at the car she was in as it drove away from a fight in a St. Paul parking lot.
“Somebody took her life. She had dreams, admirations, aspirations. She had all that, you know, she still had the fighting spirit, the tenacity, the energy,” Black said.
The shooter has a criminal record involving firearms, having shot someone in the same parking lot six years earlier.
Are These types of cases, where a criminal possesses a firearm and uses it to harm someone, require everyone from police to prosecutors to work together to combat violent crime.
According to U.S. Attorney General Andrew Luger, his office prioritizes the most violent offenders.
“If an individual is suspected of a number of murders or shootings or carjackings, and witnesses are reluctant, it’s difficult to get the case to be charged as murder, carjacking or even robbery. Sometimes you take the simplest solution that prosecutors, both at the state and federal level, will do. A felon in possession is a very simple, simple solution and a simple case to prove,” Luger said.
In the past five years, federal prosecutors have charged more than 450 criminals with drug possession.
“A lot of times we can get more jail time, or a certain jail time, and we want to do that for the right type of suspect,” Luger said.
State cases make up the majority of felon-in-possession charges, with county attorneys filing more than 8,000 charges in Minnesota over the past five years. The highest number is in the state’s largest county, Hennepin, followed by Ramsey County. So far, about 30 percent of those charged have been convicted.
“Inmates who possess a firearm have a history of not making responsible decisions,” said Megan Walsh, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.
Walsh runs the Gun Violence Prevention Law Clinic, where students defend the state’s gun laws, many of which are felons in possession cases.
“Public safety,” Walsh replied when asked what’s at stake.
Nobody knows that better than Black.
“When I’m talking about Nia’s case, absolutely not. He should never have had the gun because he had a proven track record of what he would do with it. And it just escalated and went from someone getting shot next to him to him shooting someone to him killing someone,” Black said.
So far this year, Luger’s office has secured several nine- and 10-year sentences for felons found in possession of a firearm. The maximum is 10 years. Felons face up to five years for state convictions.
How do criminals get guns? Many are obtained illegally on the street, some are ghost guns, others are buy straw. That is when someone illegally buys a gun for a prohibited person.
