Charges: Deshaun Hill shot by stranger after they passed on sidewalk

Police said they arrested Fohrenkam on Feb. 16 at the Carlton County Jail, where he was in custody for an unrelated offense.

Cody Logan Fohrenkam/Hennepin County Sheriff's Office

Second-degree murder charges were filed Tuesday against 29-year-old Cody Logan Fohrenkam in the Feb. 9 shooting of Deshaun Hill, a 15-year-old star athlete and honor-roll student who attended North High School.

The shooting took place in the area of Golden Valley Road and Penn Avenue North around 12:30 p.m., the middle of the school day. Some students from North High School were reportedly planning a “civil action” for that day in response to the police shooting of Amir Locke.

Hill was found unresponsive on the northwest corner of the intersection and was immediately transported to North Memorial Medical Center, where he died of a gunshot wound to the head Feb. 10.

15-year-old Deshaun Hill Jr. was a sophomore at North High School. (GoFundMe)

According to the charges, surveillance video captured Hill and Fohrenkam walking in opposite directions on a sidewalk just moments before the shooting. They passed each other on the sidewalk, “close enough to possibly brush shoulders.” Hill continued walking, but Fohrenkam stopped. A moment later, three shots rang out.

“The suspect then pauses for several seconds, then, while carrying his backpack in his hands, begins to run eastbound out of the frame of the video. The suspect and victim were the only two people on the street at the time shots were fired,” the charges state.

A witness said she was almost in “an altercation” with Fohrenkam 15-20 minutes before the shooting because he had blocked an alley where she was driving. Fohrenkam told another witness that he was looking for someone who stole his phone.

Fohrenkam initially denied being in the state at the time of the shooting but then “changed his story” and told police he was with his cousin in south Minneapolis. Police spoke with the cousin and he said he was not with Fohrenkam on the day of the shooting.

Fohrenkam eventually admitted to being in the area of the shooting on Feb. 9 when police confronted him with surveillance video evidence.

Detectives have since discovered that Fohrenkam has been making calls from jail in an effort to “set up an alibi for himself.”

He has five prior felonies, Crime Watch Minneapolis reports.

Police said they arrested Fohrenkam on Feb. 16 at the Carlton County Jail, where he was in custody for an unrelated offense. He was transported to the Hennepin County Jail Feb. 18.

 

Anthony Gockowski

Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.