Man Gets Maximum Sentence In Mpls. Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 25-year-old St. Paul man was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison for shooting a man in a Minneapolis grocery store.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Daniel Moreno sentenced Zakaria Yusuf on Monday to 219 months in prison for second-degree attempted murder and being a felon in possession of a gun, the county attorney's office announced on Wednesday.
Yusuf, who was convicted in June, got the maximum sentence allowed under state guidelines, and the judge, according to a press release, said that Yusuf showed complete disregard for other people's lives.
According to a criminal complaint, the victim – a member of the Somali Outlawz Gang – was outside a store talking to friends on the 200 block of Lake Street West on Sept. 22 when Yusuf walked up, pulled out a gun and shot at him, hitting in the arm.
Yusuf, whom the attorney's office said associates with the St. Pistol Boys gang in St. Paul and Somali gangs in Minneapolis, kept firing at the victim, hitting him several times, as he ran into the store.
There, the victim fell to the floor and Yusuf fired another shot from the doorway. The victim took the bullet in the arm, as he raised it to cover his head.
He was treated at a hospital and later released.
But he didn't want to cooperate with Yusuf's trial, and he was subsequently placed on electronic home monitoring. He didn't show up at Monday's sentencing, the attorney's office said.
Vicki Vial Taylor, the assistant Hennepin County attorney, said at the sentencing hearing that the Somali community, the court and police cared more about the shooting than the victim.
