Teen accused of shooting man in head in 2022 released to mother due to mental incompetency — then he allegedly shoots another man in head less than year later

A teenager who was accused of shooting a man in the head at a Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, gas station last year was released to his mother on grounds that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, KARE-TV reported.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Less than a year later, he allegedly shot another man in the head in the same city, which is just a few minutes north of Minneapolis, the station said.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

'Get out before I shoot you'

What's more, just an hour after that second shooting — which took place in February — Hawa Lobeh told KARE she almost became the teen's third shooting victim.

Police believe that same teen — who was 16 years old at the time — pointed a gun at Lobeh outside her apartment and demanded her purse and her car, the station reported.

"Get out before I shoot you," she recalled the teen telling her as she begged him not to shoot, KARE said.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Lobeh told the station she’s been unable to work due to trauma and can't afford repairs on the car after the teen crashed it into a snowbank.

The crime against her "changed everything,” she told KARE, adding that police nevertheless told her "you are the lucky one,’’ due to the teen allegedly shooting a victim outside a market just an hour before.

The station said that man is still hospitalized.

Members of the anti-violence nonprofit Minnesota Acts Now were at the scene and worked to save the victim’s life, the station said.

“We did not think that he would survive that shooting,” Bishop Harding Smith, who leads Minnesota Acts Now, told KARE. “What happened that day never should’ve happened.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

What's the background?

At the time of the May 2022 shooting that the teen was accused of carrying out, he allegedly already had been mixed up in more than a dozen other crimes, the station said.

But he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial due to his mental health and low cognitive functioning, KARE reported.

With that, his shooting case was suspended, and he was released to his mother, the station said, citing court records. Oh, and more than a dozen misdemeanor charges against him were dismissed as well, KARE added.

The station said that upon his release, the teen wasn't given GPS monitoring, he canceled or failed to attend required psychological evaluations, and there’s no record that he received treatment.

Fast-forward to February of this year, and the teen is charged with shooting another man in the head — not to mention his alleged armed robbery of Lobeh an hour later.

Now what?

KARE said the teen is being held in the Hennepin County juvenile detention center as hearings commence to determine his competency — and that presents the possibility that he'll be let go again if he’s found incompetent.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty — whose new policy indicates her office generally will not challenge a court's incompetency ruling, the station said — did not respond to KARE's repeated requests to discuss the issue.

The possibility that the teen may be released again terrifies Lobeh, who told the station that "the fear is in me. When I go to bed, sometimes I see people with guns shooting me.”

KARE 11 Investigates: Legislators failing to reform broken juvenile competency systemyoutu.be

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!