Shawn Jones was a 28-year-old Black man from Saint Paul, Minnesota, whose mother remembered him as having a good heart. On the night of October 27, 2019, he was part of a group of about 20 people who gathered at Kent Street and Central Avenue to film a rap video. The event was livestreamed on social media, and police believed some of the lyrics could be interpreted as taunting rival gangs.
About 15 minutes after the video was filmed, most of the participants had left the area.
Jones and another person remained, sitting in their respective vehicles. A white van then drove by, and its driver opened fire on them before speeding away. Around 11:30 p.m., police responded to the shooting and found Jones slumped over the steering wheel of his car at Dale Street and St. Anthony Avenue. His vehicle had at least ten bullet holes in it. Emergency crews rushed him to Regions Hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to his upper abdomen. The other person who was shot sustained injuries but survived.
Investigators found .40 caliber casings at the scene and used surveillance footage to track the white van to an apartment complex in Oakdale. There, cameras recorded two men getting out of the van, cleaning its interior, removing the license plates, and throwing items into a dumpster. The men were later identified as brothers Marcus Anthony Baker and Brandon Maurice Baker, who police knew were associated with a gang that was a rival to the one that made the rap video. The van was later found abandoned in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Marcus Anthony Baker, the driver, was charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder. His brother, Brandon Maurice Baker, who was a passenger in the van, was charged with aiding an offender after the fact for helping his brother clean and dispose of the vehicle.
In September 2020, Marcus Anthony Baker was convicted of murder and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison. The following year, in October 2021, Brandon Maurice Baker pleaded guilty to aiding an offender. He was sentenced to 86 months, or just over seven years, in prison. At his sentencing, Shawn Jones’s mother, Angela Philips, gave a brief, emotional statement. “It hurts me so bad,” she said. “My son had a good heart and he did not deserve to be killed.” The case is considered solved as of Brandon Baker's sentencing in October 2021.
