Shane Boswell

Shane Boswell was a 23-year-old Native American man from Minneapolis, Minnesota. To his sister, Lestina Saul-Merdassi, he was her "little brother." On a memorial page, loved ones remembered him as an uncle and a friend, with one writing, "Ima keep ur name alive!"

On August 18, 2020, Shane was killed in the area of Nicollet Avenue and West 59th Street in Minneapolis. His sister later said he was "shot, killed, and left there for dead.” The violence that took his life did not end there. The very next day, the mother of Shane’s girlfriend, 61-year-old Teresa Bear Ribs, was fatally shot outside a residence in St. Paul.

According to court documents filed in the case of Teresa Bear Ribs, Shane’s girlfriend believed the people responsible for his death were trying to shoot her. She told investigators that Shane “has been involved in some bad things and she knew him to have had several firearms,” and she thought that when his killers could not find her, “they shot her mother” instead.

Two men were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder in the death of Teresa Bear Ribs. One of the men, Christopher Malik Todd, was described as an associate of Shane's. According to one of the charged men, they had gone to the residence to talk to Shane’s girlfriend about his death when Bear Ribs was shot.

While arrests were made in the killing of Teresa Bear Ribs, no one has ever been charged in Shane Boswell's murder. In February 2023, his sister Lestina confirmed the status of his case, stating, “They don’t really have a prime suspect or somebody who is officially under arrest for that crime.” As of that date, Shane's homicide remains unsolved.