In the late hours of a November evening in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a confrontation rooted in wounded pride spiraled into a fatal encounter for Rashaad L. Van Pelt, a 32-year-old Black / African American male. The tragic sequence of events began with a verbal dispute a few hours before the shooting on November 20, 2021. Van Pelt had a conversation with a man named Dontaye Javonne Thomas, mentioning he had heard Thomas had been beaten up.
This remark angered Thomas, who left the scene and set in motion a deadly plan.
Thomas sent a text message to Jai'Patric Ni'Carlo Timberlake, urging him to come and to bring a firearm. In the message, Thomas claimed that Van Pelt had threatened to "shoot up the block." Later that night, around 11:30 p.m., Thomas returned to the 1000 block of York Avenue in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, accompanied by Timberlake, a third man named Deveon Quintarius Kirk, and a fourth individual. This group of four men approached Van Pelt outside an apartment building. A witness to the escalating tension heard arguing and loud music for about ten minutes before the situation turned violent. The fourth man in the group reportedly tried to de-escalate the conflict, attempting to persuade Thomas to leave.
Despite the attempt at intervention, the confrontation reached a point of no return. Deveon Kirk pulled out a gun and, according to a witness, shot Van Pelt "for no reason." Witnesses reported seeing between six and nine muzzle flashes as Van Pelt fell to the ground. Police received multiple 911 calls and arrived to find Van Pelt lying in a nearby alley, shot multiple times and barely conscious. Life-saving measures were attempted, but he succumbed to his injuries at the scene. An autopsy would later confirm he had been shot nine times. Investigators determined the shooting was not a random act.
In the aftermath, the investigation led to the arrests of three suspects who were subsequently charged with second-degree murder: Dontaye Thomas, Jai'Patric Timberlake, and Deveon Kirk. The fourth man who was present was also arrested but cooperated with investigators, identifying Kirk as the sole shooter. Further evidence, including fingerprints matching Kirk's found on a car at the scene and surveillance footage, supported his identification as the gunman. The driver of a vehicle Timberlake was in when he was arrested told investigators that Timberlake had said to him, "Bro, I think he killed him, bro." Thomas also confirmed to police that Kirk was the only one who fired a weapon that night, stating he "didn't know Kirk was the type of person to do something like this."
