A teenager has received a term of more than 18 years for his role in a daylight mass shooting in Minneapolis that wounded nine people, four of them juveniles.
Jaden T. Butcher, 19, of Minneapolis was sentenced Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to numerous counts of aiding and abetting first-degree attempted murder in connection with a mass shooting in August 2023 outside the Minneapolis Market, near the intersection of E. Franklin and S. Chicago avenues.
A co-defendant, Demario Lee Dempsey, 18, of Minneapolis, was arrested in November and similarly charged. Dempsey remains jailed ahead of a May 20 court hearing.
The plea agreement between the County Attorney’s Office and Butcher’s defense calls for him to be sentenced on June 30 to 18⅓ years. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Butcher is expected to serve the first 11⅓ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The shooting occurred close to where four people were shot — one fatally — in February 2024.
According to the criminal complaint and police records concerning the shooting in August 2023:
Shortly before 6 p.m., two people with guns — a pistol and a fully automatic rifle — exited a car and fired at least 42 rounds into a crowd and hit “no less than nine people,” the charges read. ShotSpotter technology detected at least 28 shots fired within 1½ seconds.
“At least four of the people shot were juveniles,” the complaint noted, “as well as a grandmother who was present with her approximately 8-year-old granddaughter. The granddaughter is ... trampled as the victims flee at the time of the shooting.”
