BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (WCCO) – A Brooklyn Park man was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree assault for shooting and paralyzing a teenager on Jan. 6.
According to the Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, 18-year-old Laltigus Rodriguez Laray Lyons was charged with both aiding and abetting first-degree assault and aiding and abetting assault committed for benefit of a gang.
Brooklyn Park Police were called to the scene of a fight at Brookdale Drive and Welcome Avenue at 12:30 a.m. Upon arrival, they found a 17-year-old who had been shot in the back. The bullet punctured a lung and was lodged in his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Investigators found that Lyons and his friends, members of the Stick-Up Boys street gang, encountered the victim and his friends along Brookdale Driver. When Lyons discovered they were from the Dougie Ghetto Kidz gang (DGK), he fired several gun shots towards them – striking the victim in the back.
Lyons could face a maximum of 50 years in prison.
