Man’s many ‘straw’ gun buys include those used to kill two children in Minneapolis, complaint says

A Twin Cities man illegally bought dozens of guns over five years that are tied to a slew of criminal activity, including the killings of two youngsters in Minneapolis four years ago.

William Earl Burton, 26, of Blaine, has been charged in U.S. District Court in with three felony counts as authorities allege he spent at least $18,000 on more than 40 handguns from November 2019 until August 2020 at various Twin Cities retailers.

Specifically, Burton allegedly failed to disclose during the “straw purchases” that he was profiting by buying the guns for people who were barred from obtaining firearms because of their criminal histories.

Burton remains in federal custody in the Sherburne County jail ahead of a July 14 court appearance. Messages were left Tuesday with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations.

Two of the crimes that prosecutors say were carried out by others with guns Burton bought were the gang-related shooting that killed 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith as she was jumping on a trampoline with friends in north Minneapolis on May 15, 2021, and the North Side killing of Aniya Allen, 6, while she rode in her mother’s car.

D’Pree Shareef Robinson, 22, of Minneapolis, was sentenced to 37½ years for Trinity’s death. Aniya’s killer remains at large.

The children’s deaths became a rallying point for the North Side and beyond, drawing attention to violence that gripped parts of the city.

Burton’s criminal history in Minnesota includes a sentence in January 2022 for a nonfatal shooting during a robbery in Blaine. He is on probation for that crime until January 2027. The conviction prohibits him from possessing guns or ammunition.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Fleet Farm in 2022, accusing it of negligence for not doing enough to stop straw buyers at its Minnesota stores. The company has denied the allegations as resolution of the case is pending.

Straw gun purchases were behind two of the most significant shooting incidents in recent years in Minnesota.

In October 2021, a gun bought by felon Jerome Horton was used in an October 2021 mass shooting at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar in St. Paul, leaving one woman dead and more than a dozen people wounded. Horton, now 28, of Minneapolis, was sentenced in federal court to slightly more than two years in prison for making the purchase.

In January, Ashley Dyrdahl, now 37, pleaded guilty in federal court in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to two charges related to buying the guns her boyfriend used to ambush and kill three first responders in Burnsville in February 2024. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 10.

According to the federal case against Burton:

In the fall of 2020, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began investigating Burton’s gun purchases after police recovered some of the weapons shortly after he bought them.

By April 2025, 17 of the guns were recovered from someone or someplace not directly associated with Burton.

During each purchase from a federally licensed firearms dealer, Burton falsely certified in writing that “he was the actual purchaser” of the gun. The purchases were made from the following retailers: Fleet Farm stores in Brooklyn Park and Blaine, Bill’s Gun Shop & Range outlets in Robbinsdale and Circle Pines, Sportsman’s Warehouse in Coon Rapids, and DKMAGS in New Brighton.

One of the firearms Burton bought on March 13 was a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun used during a nonfatal shooting in Blaine during a robbery 10 days later.

“The victim stated that he was shot by an African-American individual,” the criminal complaint read. “Burton is Caucasian.”

Numerous other guns bought by Burton were seized by law enforcement from the hands of felons all across the metro, including in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville and Eagan.

In November 2020, ATF agents interviewed Burton, who said he sold most of the guns on Armslist.com and attempted to pawn one at a shop in Spring Lake Park.

Burton had a social media conversation with one buyer in July 2020 about him needing a $50 fee to buy a gun on behalf of a felon.

In April 2024, an ATF agent searched Burton’s Facebook account and found a posting from June 2020 that said, “I love shooting what can I say?” Also posted were six videos of him shooting various guns.