Charges: 16-year-old and an accomplice killed drug dealer in Robbinsdale for his gun

A 16-year-old from Coon Rapids is charged with shooting and killing a 22-year-old from Hastings after trying to steal his gun and leaving his phone behind in a drug deal gone wrong in Robbinsdale last month.

Dushawn Quran Cotton Lowe was charged with second-degree murder this week for the death of Treyvon Molette. He was also charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery. The charges indicate the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will look to certify Cotton Lowe as an adult.

A second suspect, a 17-year-old, was arrested Wednesday in Bismarck, N.D. He has not yet been charged.

Messages left with Cotton Lowe’s attorney, Andre Morant, were not immediately returned.

According to court and police documents:

Cotton Lowe and another suspect used Snapchat to set up a meeting with Molette to buy marijuana vape cartridges on the evening of Dec. 2, 2024. Molette told them the price for an individual cartridge was $40 but Cotton Lowe and his accomplice haggled over the price before noticing Molette had a Glock 30 with a Kriss Vector magazine extender inside his Ford Explorer.

Molette was on the phone with his girlfriend as the drug deal was happening, she overheard Molette saying he couldn’t sell the cartridges for $30 apiece and then she heard him say, “It’s a Kriss Vec ...” before his voice cut out. After he was shot, Molette crashed his truck into a tree. He came back on the phone moments later and told his girlfriend he had been shot.

The charges allege Cotton Lowe and the other shooter tried to rob Molette of his gun.

Investigators arrived on the scene to find Molette in the driver’s seat of the crashed car with no pulse. He was transferred to North Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Inside Molette’s truck they found three cell phones, two belonging to Molette. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension extracted data from the other phone and found it belonged to Cotton Lowe because the phone number matched the known phone number that he used to communicate with his probation officer.

Police used extensive surveillance footage to trace the movements of Cotton Lowe and his accomplice to the area of the shooting. Footage also captured the shooting itself. Investigators found social media accounts connected to the suspects that show the drug deal being planned with a meetup near where the shooting took place. Police also claim identifiable clues like tattoos, medallions and a water bottle found at the crime scene match surveillance footage of the two suspects right before the shooting.

The medical examiners report said Molette was shot in the back while leaning over his center console and the bullet caused significant damage to his heart.

Cotton Lowe has no public criminal history in Minnesota, where juvenile records are only available for crimes committed after the age of 16. He is due in Hennepin County District Court court next week on the charges.