A 29-year-old man with a violent criminal history is charged with shooting a star Minneapolis high school football player in the head two weeks ago on a North Side street, according to a murder charge filed Tuesday.
Cody L. Fohrenkam of Minneapolis was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the shooting of 15-year-old Deshaun Hill, a North High School sophomore, on Feb. 9 near N. Penn Avenue and Golden Valley Road.
Fohrenkam was jailed on Friday and remains held without bail ahead of a court appearance Wednesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
The filing of the criminal complaint came on the same day that Hill was being eulogized at North Central University on the southern edge of downtown Minneapolis. It hints to no motive in the shooting, aside from a possible chance encounter where they two may have brushed shoulders on the street.
Hill was the starting quarterback on North’s varsity football team. He was paid tribute at a North basketball game a few days after the shooting. His death has led to renewed calls for a more forceful response to violence that has afflicted the city’s North Side for generations.
“This is a tragic death of a young man who should still be with us today,” County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement announcing the murder charge. “Our community once again mourns the loss of a life due to senseless gun violence. … We will do our work as ministers of justice to ensure the defendant is held accountable for his actions.”
Fohrenkam’s criminal history in Minnesota includes two convictions each for illegal weapons possession, illicit drugs and robbery, and one each for arson and assault.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers arrived at the shooting scene and saw Hill down on the northwest corner of the intersection, with a gunshot wound to the head. He died the next day at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale.
Outdoor video surveillance showed Fohrenkam walking east on Golden Valley Road as Hill was walking toward him.
Fohrenkam and Hill passed each other, “close enough to possibly brush shoulders,” the complaint read.
Hill kept walking, while Fohrenkam stopped just before three shots can be heard on the video. A tree blocked the camera from capturing Fohrenkam during the gunfire, however, Hill and Fohrenkam “were the only two people on the street at the time the shots were fired,” the complaint noted.
Multiple witnesses in the area encountered Fohrenkam shortly before the shooting. One told police that Fohrenkam said he was looking for someone who stole his cellphone. That same witness heard the gunfire and saw Fohrenkam running.
Another witness said that a man matching Fohrenkam’s description was blocking an alley where he and his wife were driving.
Investigators located Fohrenkam, who at first said he was not in the area of the shooting. Told of video of him being at a store near where Hill was shot, he said to police that he was looking for someone who stole his cellphone.
A cousin gave detectives an alibi for Fohrenkam, saying the two of them were together. Since Fohrenkam’s arrest, he has made calls from jail “seeking to set up an alibi for himself,” the complaint revealed.