Man pleads guilty to assault related to shooting that injured woman last summer

A man pleaded guilty to an assault charge after an exchange of gunfire left a woman shot in the back last summer.

Deandre Lavonne Johnson, 26, from Inver Grove Heights, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for the incident, according to court records.

RELATED: Woman injured from gunfire in Minneapolis

The plea deal saw other charges, including second-degree riot and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person, dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

The criminal complaint says that Minneapolis police responded to reports of a shooting at a downtown Minneapolis bar in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2023.

Officers then found a woman who was “gravely injured” after being shot in the back. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition before she was stabilized, according to the complaint.

Investigators then found that about 20 minutes before the shooting, there were two groups of people “involved in a dispute” in a parking lot outside the bar before police on horseback responded.

The complaint states that surveillance footage shows Johnson fleeing the area of the disturbance with a gun in his hand. The footage then shows Johnson approach a parked Nissan Murano, which was registered to his mother, where he tried to stash the gun.

Johnson then had brief contact with the officers who responded to the initial disturbance before he walked north on Hennepin Avenue away from the area.

The complaint states that the footage then shows a female driver follow Johnson in the Nissan Murano and park on 4th Street. Johnson then got in the backseat then walked west on 4th Street, crossing 1st Avenue.

Footage then shows Johnson point a gun west and fire repeatedly at a person or people just out of the video frame. Investigators then found discharged cartridge casings where he was standing.

Police then determined that another shooter was firing from the area that was just outside of the video frame. The complaint states the shot that struck the woman in the back was fired by that shooter, who is currently unidentified.

The next night, Johnson was arrested while sitting in the Nissan that was parked in the same parking lot on Hennepin Avenue where the initial group disturbance happened. A loaded handgun was found in the possession of a person who was with Johnson in the Nissan.

Johnson was on supervised release for a first-degree assault conviction stemming from a shooting incident in December of 2016. In that case, Johnson shot a juvenile in the neck, which severed his spinal cord and paralyzed him. He was released in January of 2023.

Court documents show Johnson is expected to be sentenced to 39 months in prison with 174 days credit for time served.

Johnson’s official sentencing is set for the morning of Feb. 23.