Teen charged with second murder in Minneapolis in 8-month span

A 17-year-old is due in court Tuesday after being charged with his second murder in Minneapolis in an eight-month span, adding to a history of serious offenses at a young age.

Ashawn Kyrio Willis, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court last week with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting on March 15 of Aron Jabari Bell-Bey, 30, of Minneapolis, in the 4100 block of Chicago Avenue.

Bell-Bey died 2½ months later at a Minneapolis health center from gunshot wounds to his head and neck.

Willis remains in custody ahead of a court hearing Tuesday afternoon in juvenile court. The County Attorney’s Office has indicated its intention to have both murder cases prosecuted in adult court, where any conviction would expose him to harsher sentencing.

Three juvenile petitions stitch together a violent run for Willis that started with Bell-Bey being shot. According to the petitions and earlier police statements:

Police were alerted about 5 p.m. to a shooting and arrived at 38th and Chicago, known as George Floyd Square, to find Bell-Bey on the pavement next to the passenger side of an SUV. Officers saw he had a gunshot wound to his right cheek.

Witnesses and surveillance video revealed to police that the shooting occurred outside an apartment building in the 4100 block of Chicago Avenue S. Willis lives on that block.

Bell-Bey’s girlfriend told police that he arranged to sell marijuana to four males. She drove to the meet-up location outside the apartment building, with Bell-Bey in the passenger seat and their two young children in the back seat.

She said the four males and Bell-Bey, still in the car, negotiated the drug deal’s terms. Bell-Bey then handed a sample of marijuana to one of the males before one of them put a gun to her boyfriend’s face, demanded all of the marijuana and shot him.

The four males fled on foot as the girlfriend drove north on Chicago Avenue and pulled over after about four blocks.

One of the males told police weeks later that Willis was the shooter. In addition, that person disclosed that Willis threatened to kill him if he talked to police. The girlfriend also identified Willis to police as the one who killed Bell-Bey.

On Sept. 27, Willis was in a vehicle that was pulled over in Bloomington by Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police who saw the tabs were expired. Police removed Willis and four other people in the vehicle, which smelled of marijuana. A search of Willis turned up a handgun with an extended magazine.

Willis was found guilty on Oct. 30 of felony gun possession and put on supervised probation for six months. The sentencing document pointed out another case filed against him in 2022, when he was either 14 or 15 years old. Details of that crime are not public, because of his age.

The sentence came under what is known as a stay of adjudication, meaning the charge would be dismissed and the conviction removed from the court record if he had followed the terms of his probation and remained law-abiding.

Less than a month later, Willis allegedly fatally shot another a man, again occurring during an attempted drug deal. Hussanee Abdul-Malik Harris, 23, of Minneapolis, was shot in the back outside a North Side gas station on Nov. 25 and died soon afterward at North Memorial Health Hospital.

Willis and co-defendant Martaveis Lamier Roberts, 22, of Minneapolis, were both charged with second-degree murder. A witness told police that Willis was the shooter at the Full Stop gas station in the 1800 block of Lowry Avenue N.

Roberts was the driver who brought Willis to where the drug transaction was supposed to have occurred and witnessed Harris being pistol-whipped and then shot as he ran for his life. Roberts remains jailed and is due in court on June 5.