Charges filed against man accused of firing gun at Northtown Mall

A man accused of firing a gun Sunday afternoon outside Northtown Mall in Blaine is now facing criminal charges.

Documents filed in Anoka County District Court on Tuesday show 20-year-old Maurice Eugene Neylon of Anoka is charged with threats of violence and intentionally discharging a firearm that endangers safety.

According to a criminal complaint, Blaine police first responded to reports of a shooting at Northtown Mall around 3:18 p.m. Initially, it was reported that the shots were fired near the food court, and the mall was placed on lockdown.

Police later learned the gunfire happened outside the mall and recovered eight cartridge casings in the parking lot; however, one bullet hit a display case inside the mall. No one was injured.

Security footage showed a group of five males leaving the mall and walking through the parking lot before there was an “exchange of gunfire.”

Troopers with the Minnesota State Patrol found Neylon running to a vehicle from a neighborhood just south of the mall. A 9 mm handgun in Neylon’s possession had an empty magazine and its slide was “locked back,” suggesting it had recently been fired, the complaint states.

Neylon was placed under arrest, and while he was in custody he asked if this incident would be considered as a “mass shooting.”

The eight recovered shell casings were submitted for testing. Four of them matched with the gun found on Neylon, while the others were fired from a different gun.

None of the other four people involved in the shots fired incident have been identified.

Neylon remains in custody at the Anoka County Jail, and a judge set his bail at $1 million during an initial court appearance on Tuesday. His next hearing is set for Oct. 7.