Boy, 16, Charged With Attempted Murder After Coon Rapids Shooting

Boy, 16, Charged With Attempted Murder After Coon Rapids Shooting

The victim told police he'd arranged to meet the suspect to sell him vape pens.

A teen survived being shot while inside his vehicle in Coon Rapids in September after the bullet lodged millimeters from his heart, according to charges filed against the 16-year-old alleged shooter.

Prosecutors in Anoka County have charged Nasiah Edward Hinton with 1st-degree attempted murder and 1st-degree assault in connection with the incident, which happened Sept. 27 in Coon Rapids.

Hinton, who will turn 17 in May, is being prosecuted in adult court. Each charge he's facing carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the area of 113th Avenue Northwest and Robinson Drive Northwest on report of a shooting around 9 p.m.

The 911 caller, an 18-year-old woman, told police her friend had been shot and she’d been shot at by an unknown assailant who’d approached their Mercedes Benz and fired into it.

The uninjured woman told dispatch they were driving the injured victim, an 18-year-old man, to a friend’s home on the 1400 block of 120th Avenue Northwest.

Officers arrived at the home and found a group of people frantically assisting the shooting victim, charges state.

According to the complaint, hospital staff determined the bullet lodged within the victim’s chest "was only millimeters from his heart."

Investigators spoke to the victim and other witnesses inside the vehicle who said they were approached by a group of suspects and given demands to hand over their belongings.

The victim told police he was intending the sell vape pens to someone he met on Telegram, according the complaint.

The person depicted on the social media account, whom the victim did not know, demanded his phone and wallet and then shot him when he refused, the victim said.

Detectives circulated the Telegram suspect photo and Hinton was subsequently identified by a school administrator on Sept. 30.

"Detectives reviewed [Hinton's] school photograph and immediately recognized that it matched the suspect from the photograph on [the victim's] phone," charges state.

Hinton was arrested the next day at school. During a search of Hinton's home, police recovered two handguns inside a black jacket.