‘That’s My Grandson’: Family Of 16-Year-Old Cordero Montgomery Jr. Mourns Another Young Life Lost To Gun Violence In North Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN (May 25, 2026) By Thursday evening, the stretch of sidewalk along the 1300 block of 18th Avenue North in Minneapolis had begun transforming into something painfully familiar.

Candles appeared first. Then flowers. Then handwritten messages from friends, relatives, and neighbors struggling to understand how another teenager’s life had ended beneath the sound of gunfire before summer had even fully begun.

The victim was 16-year-old Cordero Montgomery Jr., known to family simply as “Junior,” a teenager relatives describe as academically gifted, deeply affectionate, and inseparable from the people who raised him.

His killing has left another Minnesota family navigating the kind of grief that increasingly echoes through neighborhoods already exhausted by recurring cycles of youth violence.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department, officers responded Thursday, May 21, at approximately 5:30 p.m. to reports of gunfire on the 1300 block of 18th Avenue North in north Minneapolis.

When officers arrived, they found Montgomery suffering from multiple gunshot wounds on the sidewalk. Police attempted lifesaving measures at the scene, but the teenager was pronounced dead before he could be transported to a hospital.

A second victim, a 44-year-old man, was also struck by gunfire during the incident. Authorities said the man suffered non-life-threatening injuries and drove himself to a nearby gas station near West Broadway and Knox Avenue North seeking assistance before paramedics transported him to a local hospital.

Police investigators have not publicly determined whether the older victim had any connection to Montgomery or whether he may have been an unintended bystander caught in the shooting.

As of the latest public updates, no arrests had been announced, and investigators continue pursuing leads while asking community members to provide surveillance footage, witness information, or anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers.

For James and Wendy Nelson, however, the investigation now unfolds beneath a much heavier reality.

The couple are the foster parents of Junior’s biological father, but they say the relationship long ago transcended legal definitions. They raised Junior as their grandson, watched him grow into adolescence, and built their lives around the rhythms of his presence.

Now they are left replaying the final hours before his death.

Speaking publicly after the shooting, the Nelsons described Junior as respectful, intelligent, emotionally expressive, and unusually affectionate for a teenager his age. Family members recalled how he regularly ended conversations by saying “I love you,” and how he still sought out hugs from his grandmother without embarrassment.

“He was just the best kid,” James Nelson said in interviews following the shooting.

The family said Junior had spent part of Thursday visiting a friend in north Minneapolis and was expected to return later to the family’s home in St. Paul. Instead, the Nelsons received frantic messages informing them that gunfire had erupted and Junior had been killed.

Relatives said the scale of the violence itself remains difficult to process. Family members stated they were informed the teenager may have been struck as many as 11 times.

The emotional devastation has spread well beyond immediate relatives.

In an online fundraiser established to help cover funeral expenses, Junior’s sister described him as “full of life” and remembered his laughter, humor, and love for family gatherings. Friends and neighbors similarly described a teenager who was widely liked and who appeared to have a future still unfolding in front of him.

For residents living near the shooting scene, the violence also shattered what many described as a relatively quiet stretch of the neighborhood.

Several neighbors reported hearing rapid volleys of gunfire before running indoors for cover. Others described the emotional whiplash of watching children retreat from sidewalks and yards as police tape spread across the block.

As summer approaches, some residents now say they are reconsidering whether they feel safe allowing their children outside unsupervised.

The killing has once again intensified broader concerns surrounding youth firearm violence in Minneapolis, where community organizations, outreach workers, clergy, educators, and violence prevention advocates have spent years warning about the deepening normalization of gun violence among adolescents.

According to Minneapolis police data, Junior became the city’s 18th homicide victim of 2026.

While overall homicide and shooting numbers remain slightly lower than the same point last year, officials say the continued involvement of teenagers in gun violence remains among the city’s most troubling public safety trends.

Year-to-date Minneapolis police figures show that juveniles continue representing a significant portion of shooting victims across the city. Minneapolis recorded 52 juvenile shooting victims in 2025, following 41 in 2024 and 62 in 2023.

Violence prevention workers say those numbers reflect more than isolated criminal incidents. They point instead to overlapping pressures that include trauma exposure, online conflicts, retaliatory violence cycles, easy firearm access, unstable housing conditions, untreated mental health struggles, and economic instability affecting many young people across the city.

Longtime Minneapolis peace activists gathered near the shooting scene in the hours after Junior’s death, urging calm and warning against retaliatory violence, which outreach workers say often follows highly visible daytime shootings.

Community leaders emphasized that intervention efforts become especially critical in the immediate aftermath of youth homicides, when grief, anger, fear, and misinformation can rapidly escalate tensions.

For the Nelson family, though, much of the public conversation about violence now feels painfully personal.

James Nelson said one online comment particularly devastated him after someone referred dismissively to the shooting as “just another day in north Minneapolis.”

“That’s my grandson,” he responded.

The statement captured the emotional divide families often describe after public acts of violence. Statistics, crime trends, and policy debates may dominate headlines, but for grieving relatives, every homicide collapses into something profoundly individual: a bedroom that will remain empty, unread text messages, unfinished plans, and memories now permanently frozen in time.

The family says Junior had recently been discussing future job opportunities and remained focused in school, where relatives said he consistently earned strong grades.

“He was really smart,” James Nelson said. “Very respectful.”

Now, a teenager remembered for kindness, humor, and affection has become another name in a city still searching for answers to the persistent violence taking young lives before adulthood fully begins.

And inside one grieving Minnesota household, the final words Junior spoke before his death continue echoing louder than the gunfire that followed.

“The last thing he said was, ‘I love you.’”

MinneapoliMedia | Community. Culture. Civic Life.