In the early hours of April 12, 2021, a 15-year-old Black/African American male named Jaden M. Blackmon of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was killed. His life was cut short by a gunshot wound to the chest in a chaotic sequence of events that unfolded in south Minneapolis. The incident, which also resulted in the death of 35-year-old Ahmed M. Badal, began with a two-vehicle crash around 2 a.m.
at the intersection of South 14th Avenue and East 28th Street.
When police arrived at the scene in the Phillips neighborhood, they discovered one vehicle empty and Jaden deceased from a gunshot wound in the other. Badal was found lying in the road just north of the crash site, also suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. First responders attempted to save him, but he died at the scene. In the immediate aftermath, no arrests were made, leaving a void of information for the grieving families.
One account of the tragic night suggests that Jaden was part of a group involved in an armed robbery near Lake Street. During the commission of this crime, where suspects brandished firearms and demanded valuables from three individuals, one of the victims was shot in the leg. In the ensuing chaos, it is believed that one of Jaden's own accomplices accidentally shot him in the chest. As the suspects attempted to flee, their vehicle collided with a Hyundai Sonata.
Following this narrative, authorities charged 20-year-old Jovan Joshua Knight with second-degree murder and three counts of first-degree aggravated robbery. While Knight reportedly admitted to planning the robbery and being armed, he denied firing the shots that killed Jaden and Ahmed Badal. The charges against him suggest that the deaths were a foreseeable outcome of the dangerous felony they were committing. Surveillance footage reportedly captured an accomplice exiting a vehicle after the crash and shooting Badal as he approached the intersection.
However, Jaden's mother, Romisha Jones, has a different understanding of the events that led to her son's death. She believes Jaden was shot closer to 1 a.m., before the car crash. Based on a phone call she received, she thinks the teenagers he was with were trying to transport him to the hospital for his injuries when they crashed into the other vehicle. The police have been in contact with her, but she has expressed confusion about the investigation. At one point, police informed her they had a 14-year-old suspect in custody on an unrelated matter but were unable to charge him with murder in her son's case, adding another layer of uncertainty to her search for truth.
