Man gets over 3 years for shootout, attempted robbery that left himself, victim injured

A 23-year-old was sentenced to spend over three years(46 months) in prison in connection with a shooting and attempted robbery that occurred in August of 2023. Court records show he has credit for 375 days already served.

According to documents filed Tuesday, Kyrees Darius Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. In exchange for his guilty plea, two counts of aggravated first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree carjacking and one count of drive-by shooting were dismissed.

This sentence will be served at the same time as all other sentences he is currently serving, though court records weren’t clear on which cases this is in reference to.

As previously reported, St. Paul police responded to the 300 block of Atwater Street on a report of 30-50 shots being fired on Aug. 22, 2023. There, they found a man who had been shot just above his right hip.

The victim said he was driving with a woman when another vehicle rear-ended them. Two armed men approached the car and told him to “run [his] pockets.”

Court documents state that the victim, who has a license to carry a firearm, didn’t want the men to find the firearm in his pocket so he put his hands up and walked away. One of the men, identified as Johnson, put a gun to the victim’s back and told him again to run his pockets.

The victim then started shooting and Johnson started shooting back. The other suspect started shooting as well, but the criminal complaint did not state who shot the victim.

Johnson was later brought to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

The victim believed the woman he was in the car with knew about the robbery.