A 19-year-old is heading to prison for his role in a shooting that broke out on a Green Line light-rail platform in St. Paul this past spring that left an innocent bystander injured.
Isaiah Charles Bracy of St. Paul was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court to three years in prison on one count of second-degree assault for the April incident.
The shooting took place after a “loud” group of young men entered the train at the downtown Central Station about 4:30 p.m. and started talking about “pills and getting high,” legal documents say.
The train operator later described to police witnessing the group looking out the window at another group of young men standing near a restaurant at the corner of Dale Street and University Avenue. The second group appeared to flash gang signs, he told officers, according to the criminal complaint filed against Bracy.
Shortly after, the train came to its scheduled stop at the Dale Street platform and the operator said he heard yelling and gunshots.
A 39-year-old man was struck in the back by one of the bullets. He had just left a friend’s house on Dale Street and was about to board a westbound train when he was hit.
He told police that “nobody would have any reason to harm him,” the complaint said.
Video footage captured on the platform’s surveillance system shows a fight underway on the platform as Bracy starts shooting in the direction of two men, the complaint said.
One of the men eventually turned around and started firing back.
Police suspect it was the gunfire from the second shooter that struck the 39-year-old, according to court records.
Surveillance footage showed Bracy fleeing the area.
The young man declined to comment during his sentencing hearing Thursday.
His public defender, Monique Theresa Salvetti, pointed out Bracy’s family in the courtroom before Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro delivered his sentence.
“I hope their support bodes well for him when he (gets out),” Salvetti said.
Castro told Bracy he should “consider (himself) lucky” that he was facing only three years in prison since the bystander’s injuries could have been worse or Bracy himself could have been hurt during the shooting.
“You could be under the ground,” Castro said.
Bracy was convicted in January of possessing a pistol without a permit.