Man charged for having role in fatal Mall of America shooting pleads guilty to murder, assault

Krystal Frasier KSTP

Lavon Semaj Longstreet (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

A day after one of the four people charged for having a role in a fatal shooting at the Mall of America just days before Christmas last year was sentenced to serve time in prison, another defendant has entered a guilty plea.

Court records show Lavon Longstreet, 19, pleaded guilty on Friday morning to one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and one count of aiding and abetting second-degree assault.

Longstreet’s sentencing has been scheduled for the afternoon of June 10. He was previously scheduled to have a jury trial begin next Monday.

Last month, a Hennepin County judge ruled Longstreet would be tried as an adult for the killing of 19-year-old Johntae Hudson at the mall’s Nordstrom store on Dec. 23, 2022. In addition to Hudson, a woman at the store was also grazed by a bullet but survived.

Longstreet was 17 at the time of the shooting and ended up becoming one of four people to be formally charged for their alleged roles. He ended up being arrested in Decatur, Georgia by members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force, as well as deputies from DeKalb and Fulton counties.

On Thursday, Longstreet’s co-defendant, 19-year-old TaeShawn Adams-Wright, was sentenced to serve more than 30 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to murder and assault charges earlier this year.

Two 17-year-old juveniles were each charged with one count of second-degree riot.