3 Men Charged With Murder In Payne-Phalen Killing

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Three people have been charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting in St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood last month.

Dontaye Thomas, Jai'Patric Timberlake and Deveon Kirk are each charged with second-degree murder, Ramsey County court documents show.

The charges stem from the Nov. 20 shooting death of 32-year-old Rashaad L. Van Pelt on the 100 block of York Avenue. An autopsy showed he was shot nine times.

Police were called to the scene that night for a weapons complaint. Officers spoke to two witnesses, one who said a man with a gun pounded on their window, and another who said four men tried to get inside a nearby apartment building.

Police found Van Pelt lying in a nearby alley, "barely conscious and barely breathing," according to the complaint. He died at the scene.

One witness told police he heard "arguing and loud music" for about 10 minutes before the shooting. He also said he saw four men standing in the street facing Van Pelt, and somewhere between six and nine muzzle flashes before Van Pelt fell to the ground, the complaint states.

Another witness told police one of the men got into a Saturn Aura parked nearby, then exited it and joined the other men in a blue sedan in which they all left.

According to the complaint, officers recovered fingerprints from the Saturn which matched Kirk's and a fourth man who has not been charged in the shooting.

The complaint alleges surveillance video showed Kirk was the one who shot Van Pelt.

The complaint also states "further investigation" identified Timberlake as a suspect. He was arrested Monday while riding in a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle told investigators Timberlake said to him, "Bro, I think he killed him, bro."

In an interview with police, Timberlake allegedly said, "I'm telling you -- I ain't killed nobody" and he was only there "to diffuse the situation." The interview was terminated after Timberlake asked for a lawyer, the complaint states.

The fourth man, who investigators say was present at the shooting but did not have a gun, was also arrested. He said Thomas was his nephew, and that he, Kirk and Timberlake went to York Avenue that night because Thomas and Van Pelt were in an altercation.

The man said Kirk shot Van Pelt "for no reason," that Thomas had a BB gun and that neither Thomas nor Timberlake fired.

Thomas turned himself into police. According to the complaint, he told police he has a disability, and that he "gets upset when people are making fun of him." He said Van Pelt made a reference to Thomas getting beaten up, and that Van Pelt also threatened to "shoot the whole block up." He texted Timberlake after the threat, telling him to bring a gun, the complaint states.

Thomas echoed the fourth man's assertion that only Kirk fired a gun that night. He said he "didn't know Kirk was the type of person to do something like this," according to the complaint.

The complaint states Kirk was sentenced to prison on Dec. 10 for illegal possession of a firearm.