Mahtomedi man sentenced to 3 years probation for 2021 Maplewood shooting

A Mahtomedi man learned his future on Wednesday after shooting and injuring a 19-year-old in the fall of 2021, according to court records.

De’shaun Jauquarin Smith, 22, was sentenced by Judge Edward Sheu to three years of probation.

Smith was initially charged with one count of second-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Court records show that he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault on March 30. The second-degree assault charge was dismissed.

RELATED: Man charged with assault after Maplewood shooting Tuesday

According to a criminal complaint, Maplewood police received a call on Nov. 30, 2021 from a woman who said her juvenile daughter had been picked up against her will by four men and brought to a four-plex near the 2800 block of White Bear Avenue. The mom told dispatch that she and family members were there to get her back and asked that police respond too.

While on their way to the scene, officers received additional dispatch reports of shots fired at the residence, the complaint says. One officer was flagged down at the scene by a member of the group who was pointing at Smith and shouting that he’d shot their brother in the leg.

Witnesses told police that a group had come to the residence looking for the girl and described them knocking on a door stating “We know she’s in there.” The mom heard her daughter’s name mentioned near an apartment door, an argument broke out and then she saw a man come outside with a gun who started shooting, according to the complaint. One shot hit the girl’s 19-year-old brother in the thigh.

A neighbor identified Smith as the shooter, the complaint says, and said that Smith held the gun to the mother’s head before firing multiple rounds at the brother. Officers found “several” spent casings and unspent rounds nearby.

The brother was taken to the hospital by family members for a through-and-through gunshot wound to the thigh and was released.

Members of law enforcement spoke with the girl at the hospital. She had a “red and swollen and scratched” face. The victim told officers she’d called her mom to pick her up from work when four males that she couldn’t identify picked her up, handcuffed her, took her things and brought her to the apartment where the shooting later occurred, according to the complaint. She told officers she was sexually assaulted and beaten at the apartment. This portion of events remains under investigation.

Video from a nearby business captured the family’s arrival at the apartment and the shooting, the complaint states.

During an interview with police, Smith said he didn’t know the victim and that she was there with his roommate-cousin. He described a group showing up looking for the girl, yelling at him, and said he was punched in the face, the complaint says. He said he was “dazed” and ran outside and found a gun on the ground. He told officers he fired at the 19-year-old because he thought he was pulling a gun on him. Later, he denied that he’d aimed at a person and that he shot into the air as he ran. Police didn’t find a gun on Smith’s person but did find a “ghost gun” and ammunition in the apartment while executing a search warrant, according to the complaint.