On a Friday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Andre Lorenzo Mitchell was shot and killed in what authorities believe was a tragic case of mistaken identity. On November 22, 2024, the 26-year-old man from Minneapolis was sitting in his parked Mazda sedan in the 600 block of Aurora Avenue. He was waiting with another man to pick up the mother of his child from work.
In the back seat were his 2-month-old baby and his 5-year-old sister.
Around 1:30 p.m., a dark SUV pulled up alongside Mitchell’s car, and several occupants opened fire. Mitchell was struck by multiple gunshots. As the hail of bullets hit the car, his 5-year-old sister reportedly shielded the infant with her body. Though the children and the other man were not physically injured, investigators later found at least 13 bullet holes in the driver's side of the car and discovered a bullet had pierced the baby’s car seat, which was covered in shattered glass. First responders rushed Mitchell into an ambulance, but he died on the way to the hospital.
The investigation revealed that the shooting likely stemmed from an earlier dispute that did not involve Mitchell. According to charging documents, a woman named Jasmine Rawls had called police earlier that day to report that a group of women were threatening her outside her apartment after she had asked one of them to leave. After police departed, she allegedly contacted her brothers and sent them screenshots of the threats. Investigators believe the group then drove to the apartment building with the intent to retaliate but mistakenly targeted Andre Mitchell’s vehicle. Jasmine Rawls later told investigators she did not recognize Mitchell, and the criminal complaint noted that he was not from the area and had no known enemies.
Using surveillance footage, phone records, and social media posts, police arrested four people in connection with the drive-by shooting. Siblings Steven Rawls Jr., Malik Rawls, and Jasmine Rawls, along with Jarvis Sanders, were each charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder.
One of the four defendants has since been tried and sentenced. Steven Rawls Jr. was convicted of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and three counts of second-degree attempted murder. He was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison. As of his sentencing, the cases against his co-defendants, Jasmine Rawls, Malik Rawls, and Jarvis Sanders, remained pending.
