St. Paul man charged in straw purchasing scheme linked to Truck Park bar shooting

A St. Paul man accused of illegally transferring one of the guns used in the deadly mass shooting last fall at Seventh Street Truck Park has been charged in a firearms straw purchasing conspiracy.

Gabriel Lee Young-Duncan, 27, is charged with one count of conspiracy to make false statements in the purchases of firearms, federal court documents show.

The indictment filed in federal court on Jan. 18 alleges that on at least six occasions from May 11 through Oct. 17, a co-conspirator misrepresented himself to licensed firearms dealers in Blaine and Oakdale by buying guns and then handing them over to Young-Duncan, who would either keep the guns or sell them to someone else.

The firearms — four Glock 26 9mm semiautomatic pistols and two Mossberg model MC2C 9mm semiautomatic pistols — were all bought from Fleet Farm stores in Blaine, Oakdale and Lakeville. Young-Duncan allegedly gave one of the Mossberg pistols to someone else, and that gun would be used in the Oct. 10 shootout at Seventh Street Truck Park that killed 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley and injured 14 others.

Investigators traced the Mossberg gun used in the shooting to Jerome Horton Jr., who is charged with straw purchasing nearly three dozen firearms in a four-month span.

Young-Duncan made his first appearance in federal court on Tuesday.

This case was the result of investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the St. Paul Police Department.