11 alleged Minneapolis Lows gang members indicted on racketeering charges that include 5 homicides

Five Minneapolis homicides — including a February mass shooting outside a market — are at the heart of the latest federal racketeering case to take aim at a street gang in the city. The target is the North Side-based Lows, described by law enforcement as the most violent group among its peers.

The new charges, announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, chart a three-year path of bloodshed that saw rivals and bystanders alike killed amid a long-running gang war. Eleven alleged members of the Lows are named in the indictment, which also includes allegations of gun and drug trafficking.

"The murders and shootings alleged in this indictment should shock the conscience of every law-abiding citizen in the city," Luger said in a news conference Wednesday. "To put it simply, the existence of the Lows gang constitutes a threat to the sanctity of human life and we will continue to take all appropriate steps under the law to remove this threat."

The Lows indictment bookends an initiative launched by Luger's office in May 2023 to use complex conspiracy charges to disrupt Minneapolis' most prominent gangs. The charges follow similar indictments against alleged members of the Bloods, 10z/20z and Highs gangs and brings the tally of those charged to beyond 90 people. Earlier this month, Luger's office won its first racketeering conviction since starting this work when a jury found three alleged Bloods members guilty of charges that covered racketeering and using a firearm to carry out murder.

All of those charged in this latest case — some of whom have related state prosecutions pending — are in custody and were expected to make first appearances in St. Paul. None had attorneys listed as representing them as of late Wednesday, according to the federal court docket.

The Lows street gang has existed in Minneapolis since about 2004 and claims as its territory a section of north Minneapolis south of Broadway Avenue while the rival Highs gang operates north of that road. According to court documents, the murder that year of 18-year-old Christopher Little, identified by law enforcement as "a known Lows member," intensified a rivalry with the Highs that has since included "hundreds of shootings and murders" in their territories.

A grand jury on Monday returned the latest 18-count indictment under seal, charging 11 alleged Lows members with crimes including racketeering conspiracy involving murder, attempted murder, gun trafficking and drug trafficking. The indictment charged 78 "overt acts committed in furtherance of the enterprise" – including seven murders or attempted murders involving 10 victims. Bystanders were struck on two occasions. A judge unsealed the charges Wednesday amid the first federal court appearances in the case.

Those charged include: Ashimiyu Alowonle II, 38; Timothy Callender III, 26; Glenn Carter III, 23; Victor Collins, 22; Damari Douglas, 20; Deontae Jackson, 35; Shannon Jackson, 32; Robert Knights Jr, 19; Albert Lucas V, 20; Kaprice Richards, 23; Cartrelle Smith, 27.

Lucas has been linked to three homicides between May 6, 2021 and Feb. 27, 2024, two of which are charged in this indictment. The most recent involved a mass shooting near the Minneapolis Market at Chicago and Franklin avenues in south Minneapolis that killed 34-year-old Pierre Romel Miller of Brooklyn Park and injured three more. That followed an August 2023 mass shooting near the same market. Lucas is already facing multiple state murder charges and has been in custody since May, and court records allege that he possessed a handgun with an extended magazine at the time of his arrest. He is also being charged now in both state and federal court alongside Collins for their alleged involvement in the February 2024 shooting.

As a juvenile, Lucas was twice charged with second-degree assault and possession of an automatic weapon. He was charged with second-degree murder in the death of George F. Zeon, 19, who was shot in the head at the AmStar gas station on West Broadway between James and Knox avenues in north Minneapolis in 2021, which is also part of the new federal case.

George Levell Carter III, of Brooklyn Park, is being indicted on charges that stem from the May 2022 shooting deaths of two people — one of whom police believed was targeted for retaliation and the other was a bystander — near a food truck by W. Broadway and N. Bryant Avenue. Douglas is being linked to a south Minneapolis drive-by shooting near W. Lake Street and Grand Avenue S. that killed a man in December 2023.

This is not the first time Luger's office has charged alleged Lows gang members since it began its aggressive gang crackdown. Seven people linked to the Lows were charged in August 2023 — including Ohagi Charles Walker, 27, and Shannon Aaron Kapriece Jackson, 31, both of whom were described as high-ranking members.

But Wednesday's new indictment is the first to deploy federal racketeering charges against the gang under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute. The law, rolled out in the 1970s, was first used to bring down organized crime families and requires approval from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. It allows prosecutors to charge a group of defendants and series of acts tied to aiding a joint enterprise. The new indictment is peppered with additional counts that include fentanyl trafficking, illegal gun possession and using a firearm to carry out murder.

Specialized prosecutors from the Justice Department's headquarters have helped train Luger's staff and worked cases alongside them. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara meanwhile embedded gang investigators within Luger's office to work in addition to state and federal agents for more than two years. O'Hara on Wednesday attributed the partnership for what he described as year-to-date gun violence in north Minneapolis below the same period in 2019.

"The 11 violent offenders that have been indicted, we told you that we were coming for you," O'Hara said. "Not only did you devalue human life in our city by hunting and killing rival gang members and celebrating those deaths on social media, you also killed innocent bystanders."

Luger called the Lows "far more violent" than their counterparts in Minneapolis, pointing to the seven shootings in the indictment. He said those indicted this week acted primarily as shooters and drug dealers for the gang and did not further delineate any hierarchies.

According to court documents, the Lows do not have a formal initiation process to become a member. Prospective Lows prove their loyalty by "putting in work" via acts of violence to benefit the gang or helping traffic drugs or firearms. Lows members are expected to "hunt" rival gang members and can be expelled from the gang if they fail to do so. They often take to social media to disrespect and mock dead rivals or otherwise pay tribute to dead or incarcerated members of the Lows.

Luger said Wednesday that his office is now focused more on the Lows and Highs gangs, with a series of trials expected to continue in 2025 and potentially into the following year.

"This was the beginning," Luger said of this week's new charges. "If I'm a Lows member and I didn't see my name in this indictment, that doesn't mean a celebration."

Star Tribune staff writers Jeff Day and Paul Walsh contributed to this story.