Teen charged, warrant out for person responsible for gun in fatal shooting of 5-year-old

Police are searching for a 31-year-old man in relation to the fatal shooting of a child in Brooklyn Park on Thanksgiving.

According to Brooklyn Park Police Deputy Chief Mark Bruley, there is now an active probation warrant out for Marquis Denote Gardner who, officers say, is the person responsible for the gun involved in a 5-year-old’s death on Nov. 25.

On Thanksgiving, at about 10:20 p.m., police responded to a home on Florida Avenue near 81st Avenue North and found a child who’d been shot in the head. Despite rendering aid, the child — identified Wednesday as Lamar Antonio Scott of Gary, Indiana — died at the scene.

On Nov. 26, police said while the shooting appeared to be an accident, a 13-year-old was arrested and booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center.

Bruley said Friday that the 13-year-old, who had been handling a gun while allegedly been trying to make a social media video with peers and fired the gun at some point, has been charged via juvenile petition. The exact charge or charges are unknown.

Gardner is prohibited from having a gun, Bruley said, and he was out on probation from a separate weapons charge in Hennepin County at the time of the shooting.

"Significant attempts to find [Gardner] have been made but he has absconded," Bruley said.