The Minneapolis judge who presided over killer cop Kim Potter’s trial showed mercy to an 18-year-old with ‘a lengthy juvenile delinquency history involving assault and weapons offenses’ by freeing him to attend a funeral – only for the teen to go on the lam.
Police are now on the hunt for Shevirio Kavirion Childs-Young after Judge Regina Chu administered a warrant for the fugitive’s arrest for ‘failing to return to Hennepin County Jail after temporary release,’ court filings from the state of Minnesota show.
Chu’s decision to free Childs-Young came after the judge refused Potter’s plea to spend one last Christmas with her family before being sentenced following her conviction last month for killing Daunte Wright.
Childs-Young, who was 17 when he was arrested for possession of a Glock pistol and assaulting an officer in November, was temporarily released by Chu, 68, at 9:30 am on January 3 to attend an unspecified family member’s funeral, filings further reveal.
Judge Regina Chu, pictured here presiding over convicted Minneapolis cop Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial in December, had released the 18-year-old from Minneapolis county jail to attend a family member’s funeral for three hours. He never returned
Chu administered a warrant for the fugitive’s arrest later that day, for ‘failing to return to Hennepin County Jail after temporary release,’ court filings from the state of Minnesota show
The plan was for him to ‘report back’ to Hennepin County Jail by that 12:30 pm that day. However, he never returned.
‘Warrant issued in the amount of $40,000 (to cover both listed cases) due to defendant failing to return to Hennepin County Jail after temporary release,’ Chu wrote in an order after he failed to show.
Now, more than a week later, Childs-Young’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Childs-Young was charged on December 2 with assaulting a Minneapolis police officer and illegal possession of a firearm during a traffic stop on November 30.
According to an arrest warrant, the then-17-year-old was traveling with two other passengers, both female – one of whom was also a juvenile – and two small children in his vehicle when he was pulled over.
A case amendment order filed Monday, January 3, showed Chu’s plan of having the inmate ‘report back’ to Hennepin County Jail by half-past noon that day
The warrant states that cops soon became suspicious of the teen, who gave a deputy a fake name after asserting that he had forgotten his driver’s license after they smelled marijuana emitting from the vehicle.
Kim Potter, the Minneapolis cop found guilty of manslaughter in last year’s case following the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright
Upon searching the automobile, however, cops made a much more unnerving discovery – a loaded handgun hidden under the passenger’s seat.
‘All parties were removed from the vehicle and the deputy then observed a firearm (loaded Glock .40 caliber with an extended magazine) on the floorboard behind the front passenger seat,’ the criminal complaint reads.
Police say one of the female passengers initially claimed that the gun belonged to her, prompting the officer to prepare to transport her to jail for a weapons offense.
At that point, the warrant reveals, Childs-Young told the officer that the gun belonged to him, leading the officer to try to cuff him. But the teen did not go quietly.
Already boasting ‘a lengthy juvenile delinquency history involving assault and weapons offenses,’ as the complaint puts it, Childs-Young was prohibited by the Minnesota court system from possessing firearms – spurring the 17-year-old to resist arrest on November 30
Already boasting ‘a lengthy juvenile delinquency history involving assault and weapons offenses,’ as the complaint puts it, Childs-Young was prohibited by the Minnesota court system from possessing firearms – spurring the 17-year-old to fight back.
The complaint chronicled the ensuing struggle.
‘[Childs-Young] attempted to escape from custody by throwing his body out of the squad [car] forcefully,’ the warrant reads.
The complaint goes on to state that Childs-Young ‘kicked at the deputy, striking him in the midsection’ and at one point, yelled to the previously suspected passenger to ‘Get him!’ and ‘disarm the officer.’
‘During this struggle, [Childs-Young] grabbed the deputy’s genital area and squeezed multiple times,’ the warrant further revealed. ‘The deputy continued to struggle to control [Childs-Young] until he was able to call for emergency assistance.’
The complaint adds that Childs-Young was convicted of an unspecified assault charge as a teen in August 2020 as well as possession of a firearm, and was subsequently ‘prohibited from possessing firearms.’
It also asserted that the teen boasted a lengthy rap sheet at the time of his arrest, rife with assault and weapons offenses.
Chu gained prominence for overseeing the highly publicized manslaughter trial of Potter, who was convicted in December of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal April 11 shooting of Wright.
Chu has since ordered the disgraced officer be taken into custody and held without bail while she awaits sentencing.
Potter’s attorneys, however, attested that their client shouldn’t be incarcerated pending sentencing, arguing that ‘she’s not a danger to the public whatsoever.’
‘It is the Christmas holiday season and she is a devoted Catholic, no less, and there is no point to incarcerate her at this point in time,’ one of Potter’s attorneys said. ‘This is a rather unique case of someone who has law enforcement experience and was never in trouble in all her life.’
Chu disagreed, forcing Potter to spend the holidays in jail.
‘I am going to require that she be taken into custody and held without bail,’ Chu ruled at the time. ‘I cannot treat this case differently than any other case.’