Attorney’s office: No charges filed against pawn shop owner in man’s shooting death

Nobody will be charged in connection to a man’s death in May because looters destroyed all security video and only one witness cooperated.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Monday that a pawn shop owner won’t be charged in Calvin Horton Jr.’s death after a six-month investigation by Minneapolis police, citing insufficient evidence to overcome a self-defense argument.

Officers were called to 1538 E. Lake Street around dusk on May 27 and found Horton lying on the sidewalk, suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died at a hospital.

Authorities ask for public’s help in Lake Street pawn shop homicide

Because officers were verbally and physically assaulted, no firearm was recovered, police said, and crime lab personnel couldn’t return to the crime scene until the following morning. By that time, everything in the pawn shop was gone, including security cameras and the DVR.

An autopsy determined Horton died of a shotgun wound.

The one cooperative witness told police Horton and several others had broken into the store and the shop’s owner fired at Horton when they were within seven feet of each other. Other witnesses were contacted to corroborate that account but none of them were cooperative, police said.

According to the attorney’s office, if additional evidence becomes available, it could reconsider the decision to not charge the pawn shop’s owner.