Family of Murdered Brooklyn Park Teen: ‘My Son Did Not Deserve This’
Rashida Bryant stepped to the microphone Wednesday evening, just a parking lot away from the place in Brooklyn Park where her 16-year-old son, Jahcohn Anderson, Jr., was shot and killed last Friday night.
“[Jahcohn] loved to live life. He was in school. He had a job. In fact, he had just left his job when this incident happened,” said Bryant at a press conference arranged by community activist and Pastor Harding Smith. “Our youth can not continue to die at the rate that they’re leaving. I’m angry and hurt and I’m very upset, because my son did not deserve this.”
Investigators have arrested Farah Ahmed, 18, of Columbia Heights. He is charged with second-degree murder. Police say there was a verbal exchange before Ahmed allegedly shot Anderson inside Quick African Market on Friday.
16-year-old Jahcohn Anderson was shot and killed at a store in Brooklyn Park last Friday night.
Smith, leader of the violence intervention group Minnesota Acts Now, called the press conference to try to point out the city of Brooklyn Park’s dismissal of his group directly led to the boy’s death.
“I’m calling on the mayor, I’m calling on the city council of Brooklyn Park, to restore peace,” said Smith.
Minnesota Acts Now had a two-year contract with the city to provide intervention services, which meant patrolling and meeting with business owners and residents to try to quell any violence through conversation and mediation.
“We have one of the finest police departments in the nation. Good men. Hardworking men and women. They get up every morning to keep this city safe. But we need an intervention group that can work to keep this city safe.”
In March, the city council voted to award a new $650,000 contract to Men In Black, LLC to provide the intervention services. In April, that was suspended. Mayor Hollies Winston at the time told CCX News that was because the city became aware that Men In Black was under state investigation. No one with a state licensing board could confirm that.
Members of The Village BP, a violence interruptors service, patrol the shopping center where a 16-year-old was shot and killed last week.
On Wednesday, members of a third intervention group called The Village BP patrolled the shopping center where the shooting took place. Its founder told CCX News her group has a contract with the city. Thursday, a city spokesperson confirmed that, saying a temporary agreement with The Village BP was reached to provide intervention services for about a month. The $50,000 agreement lapses on Monday, at which time city council will take up the issue at its regularly-scheduled meeting.
Meanwhile, Smith doubled-down on his claims that the city should never have taken a contract away from his group, Minnesota Acts Now.
“We know that we can make things right and we can make things better, if we work together. We have a great vibrant community here and we have a police department that’s one of the best in the nation. But they need our help. I’m calling on everyone today to try to work together,” Smith said at the press conference.
Anderson’s father echoed the boy’s mother’s grief and asked the community to come together.
“We need it to save our youth,” Jahcohn Anderson, Sr. told reporters. “It is not a good feeling losing a child.”
