Man charged with 9 counts of attempted murder for mass shooting last summer

Emily Baude KSTP

Jaden Butcher (Credit: Hennepin County Jail)

A Minneapolis man is facing multiple counts of attempted murder in connection with an August mass shooting after being arrested for another shooting on Monday.

Jaden Trejaun Butcher, 18, was charged on Wednesday with nine counts of first-degree attempted murder and one count of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, according to court records.

The charges stem from a shooting on the evening of Aug. 20 in which a group of people were playing dice on the sidewalk near the intersection of East Franklin and Chicago Avenues when Butcher and another man fired at least 42 rounds into the crowd.

At least nine people were hit as the two men fired at least 28 rounds in a second-and-a-half, indicating the use of an automatic weapon. Investigators later recovered seven 9 mm casings and 35 .223 caliber shell casings from the scene, the complaint said.

Surveillance footage from the scene showed the license plate of the vehicle the men arrived in, which was traced back to Butcher’s guardian, according to the complaint.

Police say six of the victims were teenage boys and another was a grandmother who was there with her 8-year-old granddaughter and was “visibly trampled” in the aftermath of the shooting, the complaint adds.

In late August, officers saw the vehicle used in the shooting and tried to stop it but the vehicle fled at a high speed.

Cellphone data from Butcher’s phone shows his phone was at the location of the shooting during the incident and in the vehicle when it later fled.

On Monday, Butcher showed up at an area hospital after being injured in a shooting that involved five guns and 100 discharged cartridge casings, according to the complaint. Butcher was shot in the foot and is in stable condition, officials say.

Law enforcement says Butcher is an extreme danger to the public and is requesting a $1 million bail. He is due in court on Thursday for a first appearance.

He hasn’t yet been charged in connection to Monday’s shooting.