A Minneapolis man and a St. Paul woman have been charged for their alleged roles in a double homicide last month that was gang-related, according to authorities.
Deijuan McCaleb-Robinson, 21, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and a felony weapons charge. Lerita Rayford, 28, is charged for her role in aiding an offender to avoid arrest. A third suspect is being sought by police.
Court documents state that on May 14, Minneapolis police responded to a shooting in the area of Broadway and Bryant Avenue North in Minneapolis where two male victims were fatally shot.
The victims were identified as 51-year-old Mcconda Deion Robinson and 21-year-old Kayvon Jemell Williams.
“Witnesses on scene described two black males arrive with masks on,” court documents state. “One was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and the other a blue hooded sweatshirt.”
Witnesses told authorities both men got out of a vehicle along with a woman, “pulled out guns, and the blue hooded suspect shot the victims before all three got back into the vehicle.”
Investigators found nine spent .357-caliber shell casings at the scene, all fired from the same firearm. The criminal complaint says ShotSpotter technology captured audio of 12 rounds involving a fully-automatic handgun.
An informant gave police information that the woman getaway driver was Lerita Rayford and provided Facebook identities of the two men in connection with the shootings.
Video confirms that Rayford drove two men to the shooting scene using a Ford Fusion. Rayford was previously cited while driving the same vehicle on April 21. “The Fusion was a rental returned 2 days after the shooting. Investigators inspected the rental vehicle after it was returned [and found it] to have matching features seen on Milestone video of the vehicle involved in the shooting,” per court documents.
Before the shooting, video shows the suspects stopped at a gas station where the man in the blue hoodie paid for gas. Police were able to identify the man in the blue hoodie as McCaleb-Robinson.
After the Ford Fusion was returned, investigators matched GPS data from the vehicle with data for cellphones belonging to Rayford and McCaleb-Robinson. The cellphone locations “track identical to the Fusion’s locations from the gas station where Robinson is seen present, all the way through the shooting location and the stops afterwards.”
Court documents say there was no attempt by either phone to dial 911.
The criminal complaint explains that the shooting is a “continuation of the rivalry between gangs that operate in ‘the Highs’ versus ‘the Lows’ of the city of Minneapolis.” McCaleb-Robinson, aka “Day Day,” is known to work with a gang associated with the “Lows.” One of the victims he allegedly shot is a known member of the “Highs.”
About two weeks before the shooting at Broadway and Bryant, the criminal complaint says McCaleb-Robinson was charged for a “pistol-whipping” assault on April 25 and a shootout between rival gangs on July 31, 2021.
Both Rayford and McCaleb-Robinson are currently in custody at the Hennepin County Jail.
McCaleb-Robinson is being held on $1 million bail, while Rayford’s bail is set at $500,000. Both suspects are scheduled to make their first court appearances Tuesday afternoon.
Pafoua Yang
Pafoua Yang is a reporter for Alpha News. She has worked as an on-air reporter for stations across the Twin Cities.