A 28-year-old Brooklyn Park man faces three felony charges after a woman reported that he threatened her outside her home and fired a gun from an SUV. Cedrick Armani Steward was arrested October 20 in connection with the September 28 incident; charges were filed October 22 in Hennepin County District Court, according to MN Crime’s account of the criminal complaint.
What the complaint says
The woman told police that Steward came to her apartment building in a white SUV, yelled her name and threatened to kill her or himself, the account says. She reported that he stood on the grass outside, at one point holding a gun to his own head, before returning to the vehicle. As he drove away, she said, he fired five shots: two while passing her apartment and three more as he drove off in the other direction. She described the handgun as black and said he was alone.
Police responding to the report found several .380 shell casings in the street, and the Hennepin County Crime Lab processed the scene, according to the same account. The complaint also says Steward has prior convictions that bar him from possessing firearms or ammunition.
The legal context
Steward is charged with drive-by shooting toward a person, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm or ammunition by a person convicted of a crime of violence. Minnesota law defines drive-by shooting to include recklessly discharging a firearm at or toward a person while in, or having just exited, a motor vehicle, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. That statutory definition is legal context for the charge; it does not establish what happened in this case. The available account says the woman described shots fired into the air, and the charges remain allegations.
