A second teenager accused of unleashing gunfire last summer at a Minneapolis punk concert is in custody and appeared in court Wednesday afternoon on charges of murder and assault.
Hours after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced the arrest of one teenage suspect Tuesday, officers picked up the second juvenile suspect whose whereabouts were previously unknown. The arrests come eight months after the shooting that killed Nicolas "August" Golden, 35, and wounded six other concertgoers at the DIY pop-up punk venue dubbed "Nudieland" on Aug. 11, 2023.
Cyrell Ernest Boyd, 17, remains at the juvenile detention center along with co-defendant Dominic James Burris, 18, who appeared in juvenile court Tuesday followed by a news conference held by Moriarty where she praised the complex, collaborative investigation between her staff and Minneapolis police.
At Boyd's first appearance Wednesday, a public defender asked Judge Angela Willms to allow the teen to be released from custody on furlough so he could be present for the birth of his child Thursday afternoon when the mother is scheduled to be induced.
Willms said while she is sympathetic, public safety concerns and flight risks are too high. She ordered Boyd to remain in custody against the objection of Boyd's mother, who declined to talk to the media.
Boyd's next court appearance April 30. Burris is back in court May 1.
The teens were both charged under sealed warrant April 12. Now that they're in custody, charges of aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder and six felony assault counts are public.
While Burris was identified by a witness in surveillance video as a suspect, identifying Boyd proved to be more challenging. Detectives relied on DNA forensic testing of a cigarette butt left in an ashtray at Nudieland to determine Boyd was the second shooter, according to allegations in the criminal complaints.
The teens ran away from the shooting at Nudieland, where friends gathered in the backyard of a house in the 2200 block of 16th Avenue S. for a show and birthday party.
Gunfire erupted at 10:15 p.m. as a band was wrapping up for a crowd of 30 to 50 people. Eyewitnesses in the Phillips neighborhood saw the direction the teens fled and officers located surveillance video along that path to aid in the investigation.
Charges against both suspects are identical and accuse the teens of having hostile interactions with several people at Nudieland in the minutes leading up to gunfire. Witnesses at the party overheard them "utter derogatory epithets about the sexual orientation of the concert attendees," charges say.
One woman said the teens hit on her and made insensitive comments as she rebuffed their advances, charges say. She commented about them having guns, to which they said, "We're not going to use the gun or anything, but if need be, we will."
Another woman said she saw the suspects flashing guns and heard them make insensitive comments after learning the witnesses were lesbians, charges say.
Moriarty said that at this point there is not enough information to know whether the crime was motivated by biased comments the suspects made. Standalone hate crime charges are not on the books in Minnesota, but defendants can face charges with aggravating factors and enhanced sentencing for being bias-motivated. Prosecutors don't have to prove motive, often leaving the "why" of a crime unanswered.
It's also unknown if Burris and Boyd will be certified as adults. Moriarty said experts will conduct psychological studies on the defendants and prosecutors will decide whether to move their cases to adult court.
Also Wednesday, Moriarty's office unveiled its new Youth Group Violence Intervention initiative, which seeks to redirect troubled teens before they become entangled in the system and to prevent future bloodshed. The pilot program will offer critical services, including job training, one-on-one mentorship and mental health check-ins, to youth – and their families — identified by law enforcement as among the highest risk of perpetrating gun violence or becoming victims themselves.
"Any young person we can get to put the gun down is a huge victory," Moriarty told the Star Tribune in an interview.
To do so, her office will lean on "credible messengers" within the community who have retained the respect of teens and still have an ear to the street, allowing them to step in and help defuse disagreements before they escalate into gunfire.
The program expands upon an initiative developed in 2022 by the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County Juvenile Probation that focuses on minors already on supervised probation.
Star Tribune staff writer Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.
