A 23-year-old man who police say was a gang member was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison for shooting and nearly killing the owner of a Bloomington restaurant while robbing the dining spot.
Devon D.R. Glover's sentence in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis was imposed after he pleaded guilty to robbing Penn Lake Roast Beef on June 16, 2020, and a St. Paul liquor store a week later.
Kevan Tran, 60, was in his restaurant near S. Penn Avenue and W. 90th Street, and was shot in the chest and hand. Police found him just outside a nearby store.
Officers applied pressure to the chest wound as Tran struggled to breathe. His pulse was undetectable. Medical responders took over and transported Tran to HCMC, where he recovered and eventually returned to his restaurant.
Glover told police it appeared Tran was going for his waistband. Glover also said he drew his gun, but it went off inadvertently.
Marshawn M. Davison, 21, of Columbia Heights, was sentenced in federal court in May to six years in prison for his part in the restaurant robbery.
On June 23, 2020, Glover joined others who robbed McCafferty Fine Wine and Spirits in the 1300 block of Randolph Avenue in St. Paul and hit an employee on the head while threatening to shoot her.
Glover's 17-year sentence was what the prosecution argued for in a presentence filing.
"For a small amount of cash in a restaurant's cash register, Glover shot a man in the chest and left him to die," the filing read. "The violence was not only shocking in its extremity, it was utterly gratuitous. The owner of the restaurant did nothing to provoke the shooting [other] than to tell the two people trying to take money from him to get out of his restaurant."
Davison and Glover were known to law enforcement as being in the street gang known as EBK/PBK.
However, in a presentence filing by Glover's defense, attorney Daniel Gerdts wrote that "any suggestion that he has any gang affiliation is false."
Gerdts added that Glover denies hitting the liquor store clerk and threatening her life.
The attorney said that Glover had a difficult upbringing, suffered a serious brain injury at age 2 that "has left him cognitively impaired" and has numerous mental health challenges.
Gerdts closed in his filing by saying his client "is deeply regretful of his involvement in the offenses ... and is very grateful no one died."
Glover's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault, theft and drug possession. He was on probation until June 2023 at the time of the robberies .
Davison was convicted in 2019 in Ramsey County of aiding and abetting robbery. His probation was to run until January 2023.
