A Minnesota teenager was arrested for the murder of a beloved youth hockey coach who was shot and killed earlier this month in St. Paul after cell phone data linked the teen to the crime.
Authorities charged the unidentified 17-year-old with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting Michael Brasel, who police say stumbled upon a burglary-in-progress seconds before his death.
Brasel, a 44-year-old father of two, walked out his door at about 7:20 a.m. on May 6 to see the young man rummaging through the family car, CBS News reported.
Brasel’s son – who was in the house at the time – told police he heard Brasel yell, “What are you doing?”
Then he heard gunshots.
When police arrived, they found Brasel with several bullet wounds, CBS said. He died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Witnesses said they saw a black car with tinted windows and a loud exhaust flee to the west.
The car hit a curb about a mile-and-a-half away, knocking the front bumper off, police said.
Cops used the bumper – and the license plate – to link the car to a pair of earlier traffic stops, CBS said.
The boy was driving the car both times. So investigators got a search warrant for his cell phone, pulled the location data and found that it placed him on Brasel’s street at the time of the shooting.
The teenager was arrested last Wednesday in St. Paul after a brief attempt to run from the cops.
Prosecutors are asking the court to certify him as an adult, CBS said. His first court appearance is Monday afternoon.
The teen is no stranger to the inside of a courtroom – he was arrested for an April 2022 robbery in which he brought a gun to Harding High School in St. Paul, held it to another student’s head and demanded his cell phone.
Two bystanders recorded the crime and posted it on Snapchat.
Prosecutors charged the boy with aggravated robbery, and he was on probation until January 2023, CBS said.
Todd Axtell, a former St. Paul police chief, told CBS that kids need to be held accountable for their crimes.
“It’s not a ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ mentality, but we need consequences. Enough is enough,” he said. “No more one-of-two or three options if a person is involved in a felony level crime of violence with a gun. We need to act immediately. Take that young person off the street, put them into a secure environment, make sure they get the resources they need.”
Axtell also told CBS that the “level of violence with our young people continues to grow exponentially.”
“The level of firearms used by young people continues to grow,” he said. “It’s a major concern.”
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