The victim of the Friday night brawl at the Minnesota complex has been identified as 19-year-old Johntae Hudson.
Five teenagers, three of them juveniles, have been arrested in connection with the Christmas weekend shooting – a sixth suspect is still being pursued.
Two 18-year-olds and three 17-year-olds were arrested at their homes at 8.40am on Saturday morning, about 12 hours after 19-year-old Hudson was fatally shot during a fight inside the massive shopping complex.
A sixth suspect is still being pursued by police, they confirmed.
According to Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges, the five who were arrested stopped by a White Castle to satisfying their cravings for a bite after fleeing the scene.
‘The people we arrested here after the shooting, appears that they felt it was necessary to get something to eat. So they went to White Castle…and got a crave pack,’ said a clearly miffed Hodges.
The 18-year-olds involved in the brawl-turned-murder were identified as Taeshawn Wright and Deandre Depratto.The 17-year-olds, being juveniles, were not identified publicly by the police.
The victim of the Friday evening brawl – that was an escalation of ‘long-standing feud’ between two groups of teenagers – was identified as Johntae Hudson of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hudson’s sister, Ja’Nayea, 22, tearfully explained that her brother was ‘supposed to go to the mall to find like a sweater to go with his shoes to go to his friend’s birthday that night.’
When Ja’Nayea got a call that he brother had been shot said she said she initially ‘hoped like it was just like a minor bullet wound or something.’
That hope fell when she heard first responders were ‘trying to find a pulse.’
A close friend of the victim, Hawi Abdurahman, said the shooting never should have occurred at the Mall of America in the days leading up to Christmas.
Hodges initially reported that the suspects were ‘flat out’ refusing to cooperate, adding that some of them refused to share their names.
The Friday fatality is just the second homicide to ever occur in the Mall of America’s history and the first involving a firearm. The first was a 1999 domestic-related stabbing.
