Mahtomedi man sentenced to 3 years of probation for 2021 Maplewood shooting

A Mahtomedi man has been given probation for shooting a man in Maplewood who was responding to his sister’s plea for help.

De’Shaun Jauquarin Smith, 22, was sentenced to three years of probation last week after pleading guilty to third-degree assault in the November 2021 shooting. In exchange for his guilty plea, a charge of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon was dismissed.

According to the criminal complaint, shortly after 9 p.m. on Nov. 30, police received a call from a 47-year-old woman who identified herself as the mother of a juvenile daughter. She said her daughter had been picked up against her will by four males at the daughter’s work and was taken to a four-plex residence on the 2800 block of White Bear Avenue.

The daughter later told police that she had called her mother when four males, who she could not identify, picked her up, handcuffed her, drugged her, stole her property and took her to the four-plex where she was sexually assaulted and beaten over the next couple of hours.

Multiple family members showed up at the four-plex looking for the girl. A man, later identified as Smith, came outside with a gun, pointed it at the girl’s 19-year-old brother and started shooting. One of the shots hit the brother in the thigh.

Police found several spent casings and video surveillance that corroborated the witness’ description of events.

The brother was treated for a through-and-through gunshot wound to his thigh at a local hospital and released.

When interviewed by police, Smith said he did not know the girl, but that someone else had brought her to the four-plex. He said a group of people then showed up at the door looking for the girl, that they were yelling at him and that he was punched in the face.

He claimed he “found a gun on the ground” and shot up into the air as he was running away because he thought the brother was pulling a gun, charges say. No gun was recovered from the brother.

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office, said this week that no cases were presented to the prosecutor’s office relating to the kidnapping and assault allegations the girl made to police.

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