Federal grand jury indicts violence prevention workers on Minneapolis felony gun charges

A federal grand jury has indicted two Minneapolis violence prevention contract workers on felony gun charges in connection with a March shootout after a north Minneapolis backyard barbecue.

Kashmir Khaliffa McReynolds and Alvin Anthony Watkins Jr. are charged with firing “about 43 bullets” into the dark “at no one in particular” in a residential neighborhood after someone fired about 30 bullets in their direction from an alley, according to the indictment made public Friday. McReynolds was hit in the neck and torso but his injuries were not life-threatening.

The two men already face multiple state felony charges in connection with the event.

The night of the shooting, they were working for a nonprofit called 21 Days of Peace, run by a prominent north Minneapolis pastor, the Rev. Jerry McAfee of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church. McAfee has done faith-based violence prevention work for decades. His church and two nonprofits have been awarded about a dozen violence prevention contracts totaling $1.6 million in recent years, city records show.

McAfee questioned why the feds are charging his workers, too.

“I’m wondering how it got to the feds,” he said Friday. “[Hennepin County Attorney] Mary [Moriarty] already had it.”

He also questioned why the police haven’t figured out who fired on the pair.

“It’s interesting: They fired at ’em 30 times, you got nothing?” he said. “But [McReynolds], who’s licensed, fires back, and you give him charges. He gets hit three times. You make that ... make sense.”

The indictment says on March 10, after 21 Days of Peace hosted a barbecue, McReynolds and Watkins had clocked out but were still hanging out about 9 p.m. when someone fired about 30 bullets in their direction in the 3600 block between Queen and Penn avenues.

They ran for cover, and McReynolds laid on the ground near the alley and 36th Avenue, pulled out a Ruger pistol and began firing toward a house from which he believed the gunfire originated, the charges say. Watkins returned to the area of the shooting and McReynolds yelled “Grab my chop!” — referring to a semi-automatic weapon that he said was in the back seat of a car. Watkins grabbed a pistol and fired it from near the alley, the indictment says.

Though no other shots were fired at them after the initial hail of gunfire, McReynolds and Watkins fired about 43 rounds in and around the alley and at the intersection of 36th and Queen avenues, prosecutors allege.

Watkins is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, and McReynolds is charged with a felony alleging he gave Watkins the gun knowing the law prohibited him from having one. Watkins was not allowed to possess a firearm because of past convictions, including third-degree drug possession, two convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm and three convictions for second-degree assault. McReynolds has no felony convictions in Minnesota.

The indictment says McReynolds was working as an armed security guard for 21 Days of Peace and carried firearms to protect the violence interrupters, who are normally unarmed. The indictment says McReynolds had a permit to carry a firearm but didn’t have a license to be an armed bodyguard.

Violence prevention workers — commonly referred to as “violence interrupters” — often are former gang members who have criminal backgrounds and use their street smarts and connections to help defuse conflicts before they turn violent. Violence interrupters working for the city aren’t allowed to be armed, but McAfee has said the men were working on a state contract.

State lawmakers earmarked $3 million for 21 Days of Peace in 2023 to perform violence prevention work in 2023-2024. This year, Senate President Bobby Joe Champion introduced a bill awarding the nonprofit another $1 million for “social equity building and community engagement activities.” After a flurry of reports about Champion’s legal work for McAfee, the money is not in the jobs bill awaiting passage by lawmakers.

McAfee has been in the news since February, when he interrupted a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting and went on a five-minute diatribe when the council considered temporarily moving some violence prevention programs to Hennepin County.

A few weeks later, council members were stunned when the city’s Neighborhood Safety Department recommended his nonprofit called Salem, Inc., get a nearly $650,000 one-year contract to interrupt violence. The contract was pulled for “review” hours after McReynolds and Watkins were charged by the county. The Neighborhood Safety Department could not provide an update on the status of that contract.