Charges: Teens killed 39-year-old Maple Grove man in attempted carjacking in NE Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A 15 and 16-year-old were charged Monday for their role in an attempted carjacking in Northeast Minneapolis that killed a 39-year-old Maple Grove man last week.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced it filed a motion to certify the teens as adults for the charges. In a release, the office said “the presumption is that the judge will grant,” the motion to certify the 16-year-old as an adult.

The older teen faces two counts of second-degree murder during an aggravated robbery. Public information about the 15-year-old’s charges cannot be released without the judge’s approval to charge him as an adult.

According to the charges, the 39-year-old Steven Markey, of Maple Grove, was in his parked car near the intersection of 14th Avenue NE and Tyler Street NE just before 5 p.m. June 11.

The teens saw Markey there and decided to rob him and steal his car. Both teens had pistols with them and had pulled bandanas over their faces.

According to the Attorney’s Office, the 16-year-old said he ordered Markey to get out of the car, but Markey reached for something, so the 16-year-old shot him.

Additional shots were fired as Markey drove away, but he crashed into a building and died from his gunshot wounds.

The teens ran through alleyways behind buildings and hid a backpack under some stairs in the process.

Later that night, a vehicle was stolen from a home on 28th Street in St. Louis Park. A few hours later, New Hope Police responded to a burglary at a cell phone store where they located someone in a car matching the description of the stolen one.

The teens sped off and were pursued by police down the road. As the car turned onto the Hwy. 169 ramp, the driver crashed through a chain link fence.

Both teens were arrested and the older boy was charged with third-degree burglary, motor vehicle theft and fleeing a police officer for the offenses that happened after the murder.