Man charged in shooting death of star North High School quarterback Deshaun Hill

A 29-year-old man with a violent criminal history was charged Tuesday with fatally shooting a star Minneapolis high school football player in the head two weeks ago on a North Side street.

Cody L. Fohrenkam was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in the death of 15-year-old Deshaun Hill, a North Community High School sophomore.

Court documents listed Fohrenkam as living in Cloquet and Minneapolis.

Minneapolis police arrested him last week at the Carlton County jail, where he was being held on trespassing and drug possession charges.

He was taken to Minneapolis and booked Friday into the Hennepin County jail, where he remained without bail ahead of a court appearance Wednesday.

Court records did not list an attorney for him.

Fohrenkam was charged on the same day that Hill was being eulogized at North Central University on the southern edge of downtown Minneapolis.

The criminal complaint hinted at no motive in the shooting, aside from a possible chance encounter when the two may have brushed shoulders on the street.

Hill was the starting quarterback on North's varsity football team. He was paid tribute at a North basketball game a few days after the shooting. His death has led to renewed calls for a more forceful response to violence that has afflicted the city's North Side for generations.

"This is a tragic death of a young man who should still be with us today," County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement announcing the murder charge. "Our community once again mourns the loss of a life due to senseless gun violence. … We will do our work as ministers of justice to ensure the defendant is held accountable for his actions."

Fohrenkam's criminal history in Minnesota includes two convictions each for illegal weapons possession, illicit drugs and robbery, and one each for arson and assault.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Feb. 9, officers found Hill lying on the northwest corner of N. Penn Avenue and Golden Valley Road with a gunshot wound to the head. He died the next day at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale.

Video surveillance showed Fohrenkam walking east on Golden Valley Road as Hill walked toward him. They passed each other, "close enough to possibly brush shoulders."

Hill kept walking, but Fohrenkam stopped just before three shots can be heard on the video. A tree blocked the camera from showing Fohrenkam during the gunfire, but the two "were the only two people on the street at the time the shots were fired."

Witnesses encountered Fohrenkam shortly before the shooting, and one told police that the suspect said he was looking for someone who had stolen his cellphone. That witness heard the gunfire and saw Fohrenkam running.

Another witness said a man matching Fohrenkam's description was blocking an alley where he and his wife were driving.

Fohrenkam at first told investigators he was not in the area of the shooting. But when told surveillance video showed him at a store near the scene, he admitted he was looking for a cellphone thief..

A cousin gave detectives an alibi for Fohrenkam, saying the two of them were together. Since Fohrenkam's arrest, he has made calls from jail "seeking to set up an alibi for himself," the complaint revealed.