Getaway driver in fatal Brooklyn Park shooting sentenced to probation

A Minneapolis woman has been sentenced for helping a shooting suspect by being a getaway driver.

DeShawn Marvell Slaughter, 32, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation for one count of aiding an offender to avoid arrest. She’d previously pleaded guilty to the charge in June. Additionally, Slaughter was sentenced to 274 days at the Hennepin County Workhouse but given credit for all 274 days already served, and a term of one year and one day at the Shakopee Correctional Facility was stayed for three years and is likely to be waived as long as she doesn’t violate her probation terms.

According to a criminal complaint, Brooklyn Park Police officers were flagged down by a group of people near the intersection of Brookdale Drive and Zane Avenue at about 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2019. Officers were directed to a woman who was lying on the ground in a parking lot for the Gold Key Mall. Witnesses told officers the woman had just been shot, and she appeared motionless and unresponsive. Officers immediately began lifesaving efforts until paramedics arrived, and she was then transported to a hospital but later died there.

Man charged with murder in Brooklyn Park woman’s death

Officers at the scene talked to several witnesses who said the woman had walked into a hair salon at the mall and was met by a Black man, later identified as James Alvin Hill. According to the complaint, Hill asked the woman if she remembered him and the two then hugged. Witnesses in the salon told officers Hill asked her to come outside to see something, and moments later heard a loud bang and saw the woman fall to the ground. Hill then got into the passenger side of an SUV and fled the area.

Officers conducted surveillance and later saw a Toyota Camry leaving a home of the person the SUV was registered to. After stopping the Camry, three people were arrested, including Hill and Slaughter. The complaint states Hill later admitted to shooting the woman and taking her purse, and also said Slaughter was driving.

Hill’s case is set to go to trial in January.