On the evening of April 2, 2022, Darrell Lamont Sims II, a 27-year-old Black man, was outside an apartment building near 24th Street and Elliot Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His life was abruptly cut short when a man approached him and opened fire. Sims sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and ran from the attacker, collapsing in the backyard of a nearby house.
He was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries the following morning.
The investigation into the shooting utilized security camera footage from the area, which captured the incident. The footage showed the gunman, later identified as Dajohn Cortez Ramon Yarborough, approaching Sims and shooting at him with a handgun equipped with an extended magazine. The video also showed another man, Brian Pierre Swearegene, accompanying Yarborough, with both men visibly armed as they neared the apartment complex. Investigators found ten discharged cartridge casings at the scene. Confidential informants were instrumental in helping law enforcement identify Yarborough from the surveillance images.
In June 2022, authorities charged 30-year-old Dajohn Cortez Ramon Yarborough with second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm for the death of Sims. At the time the charges were filed, his whereabouts were unknown. The second suspect, 34-year-old Brian Pierre Swearegene, was arrested in September 2022 in Superior, Wisconsin, by a U.S. Marshals task force. He was charged with second-degree murder with intent and possession of a firearm. During an interview with police, Swearegene admitted to being one of the men in the security footage and indicated the shooting was in retaliation for the murder of an associate of Yarborough's that had occurred a couple of weeks prior in the same area.
Both men ultimately took responsibility for their roles in the death of Darrell Lamont Sims II. Brian Swearegene pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Dajohn Cortez Ramon Yarborough, who was arrested in Arizona more than a year after the shooting, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. In November 2023, a judge sentenced Yarborough to 40 years in prison. During the sentencing, Sims's family spoke of the senseless violence that took the life of an innocent young father. Yarborough expressed remorse, stating he had to "pay my debt to society for taking a man's life."
