Teen arrested for Michael Brasel murder was involved in violent Harding HS robbery

[sarisataka]

Teen arrested for Michael Brasel murder was involved in violent Harding HS robbery

FOX 9 has confirmed through multiple sources that the 17-year-old suspect in custody on suspicion of Michael Brasel’s murder is the same young man captured on a video that went viral last year inside a Saint Paul Harding High School bathroom.

In that video, you can see the armed assailant attempting to gain access to and rob a fellow student of his cell phone. There’s a pretty intense scuffle as a witness videotapes the encounter on Snapchat.

It is not clear if it is an actual firearm or a BB gun. Regardless, the teen, who we are not naming at this point, was charged and eventually pled guilty to aggravated robbery in that case. He was discharged from probation and supervision four months ago, in January.

On Wednesday, Saint Paul police executed a search warrant at his family’s home on Reaney Avenue East where the suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of gunning down Brasel when the dad and beloved hockey coach interrupted a car break-in and confronted the armed teen.

https://www.fox9.com/news/teen-arrested-in-michael-brasels-murder-involved-in-violent-harding-hs-incident

I don't have an answer nor do I want to see a large children prison population but less than a year after an aggravated robbery to be free and off probation is only teaching kids that consequences are minimal.

Now if he gets charged as an adult, his life will essentially be wasted.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. The answer lies in the last sentence of the article.

Publicly available court records for the 17-year-old suspect indicate he has had his mental competency questioned in the juvenile justice system.

Minnesota does not mandate mental health treatment or supervision for juveniles. There are no competency restoration programs in the state for kids younger than 18. It's essentially a loophole, and if a kid who needs help completes their probation and supervision without the competency programming they need, what do people expect?


(N.b., I am not a fan of mandated mental health treatment because of its carceral roots and connections. But as long as we're imagining a better way, we can imagine better mental health treatments across the board as well.)

[sarisataka]

2. I am no psychologist or sociologist

But there has to be something between throwing people behind bars for decades and a judge shaking his finger saying pointing a gun at your classmate's head is bad.

We desperately need some intermediate support network to steer these troubled teens before they hit the adult system and just get locked away.