2 men charged in shooting outside Twin Cities home that paralyzed aspiring college football player

Two men have been charged in the shooting outside the Brooklyn Park home that left an aspiring college football player paralyzed.

Nicholas Sarkor Harris Jr., 21, of Brooklyn Park and Hassan Papee Kamara, 21, of Minneapolis were each charged in Hennepin County District Court last week with first- and second-degree assault. They were also charged with drive-by shooting in connection with the gunfire on May 29 shortly after 12:30 a.m. outside the victim Michael Blidi Jr.’s home in the 6000 block of Garwood Road.

Doctors found that Blidi suffered multiple fractures to his spine and had “large bullet fragments in his spinal canal,” Friday’s charges read. “[He] could not move his legs and was determined to be paraplegic from the shooting.”

Blidi, 19, was bound this coming football season for Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge.

“His dream was terminated by a gunshot wound to his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the knee down,” his father, Michael Blidi Sr., wrote on an online fundraising page started to help with expenses related to the shooting. “Doctors said he’s not going to walk again.”

Blidi Jr. just graduated from Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., where he played on offense and defense. Milton Hershey is an elite private school for grades pre-K through 12th that includes on-campus residency amid its 7,000-acre footprint. About one-third of its students come from outside Pennsylvania, according to the school’s website.

Kamara and Harris each remained jailed Tuesday in lieu of $150,000 bail. Kamara is due in court on July 9, and Harris has an Aug. 6 hearing scheduled. Attorneys for each either declined to comment or have yet to respond to messages.

Arrested and charged earlier with aiding Kamara and Harris was 36-year-old Trokon Kaigboyah of Brooklyn Park.

According to the charges:

Blidi told police he parked his car outside his house when two masked men in a car — later identified as Kamara and Harris — drove by. One of the men fired a shot from inside the vehicle and wounded Blidi before the pair drove off.

A few days earlier, Blidi “got into an altercation with a couple of men” during a basketball game, the complaint read. Blidi punched one of the men, who replied with a threat to get a gun. On May 28, one of the men said on social media that he was going to “take care it,” the complaint quoted the posting as saying.

Police watched surveillance video outside Blidi’s home that captured the suspects’ car, registered to Kamara’s brother, leaving the scene of the shooting and parking outside Kaigboyah’s apartment building. Three males then enter the building; Kaigboyah soon exited and moved the car to a visitor’s parking spot.

A police search of the car turned up marijuana and a discharged .40-caliber cartridge casing. Seized from Kaigboyah’s apartment by police were two handguns, a loaded Glock 23 and a .40-caliber firearm with an extended magazine. Also found were various types of ammunition and several .45-caliber live rounds in a toilet bowl.

Following his arrest, Kaigboyah told police that Kamara, Harris and a third man came to his apartment after the shooting. He admitted moving their car and allowing them to change clothes at his residence.

He said the men told him that something had gone down. They then gave him a Glock firearm in a paper bag. All three men stayed in the apartment until about 5 a.m.