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Fusillade of shots sends two Red Lakers to
hospital
by Clara NiiSka
A fight at a Bemidji bar allegedly led to a shooting in
Redby, on the Red Lake reservation, beginning shortly after 1:30 a.m.
on
Thursday, April 18th. The
FBI subsequently found 19 bullet casings, indicating that at least 19
gunshots
had been fired, although area residents say they heard “well over that
amount
of shots.”
Randy Lee Garrigan and Arnold James Pemberton, who according
to the criminal complaint filed in US District Court on April 19th
are “both Indians,” were charged in federal court with “aiding and
abetting
each other,” in the April 18thassault with
firearms
resulting in
serious bodily injury of Robert Charles “Whitey” Anderson and Leland
Dean
Lussier, Jr. Garrigan and Pemberton had
a detention hearing on Wednesday, April 24thin
federal
court in
Minneapolis, and are currently in custody at a halfway house in the
Twin City
area, until space opens up in an area detention facility.
The federal prosecutors have thirty days
during
to file an indictment, and according to Karen Bailey, media liaison at
the U.S.
Attorney’s office, Garrigan and Pemberton will face a federal grand
jury.
According to the FBI Special Agent Keith Hanzel’s criminal
complaint, Garrigan and Pemberton, both aged 23, got into a fight with
Anderson
and Lussier at the Blue Moon bar in Bemidji. Bar
bouncers broke up the fight and told
Garrigan and Pemberton to leave
the bar.
According to the complaint, Red Lake criminal investigator
Donovan Wind received a report of gunshots on the Copper City road in
Redby at
about 1:49 a.m. Officer Maurice
Lawrence of the Red Lake police department was headed toward Redby in
response
to the shooting report when he met a white Oldsmobile headed in the
other
direction toward Red Lake at 96 miles per hour. The
car, driven by Melissa Lussier, sped through the town of Red
Lake and pulled up at the emergency entrance, its windows shattered. Both Anderson and Leland Lussier got out of
the car covered with blood, Anderson seriously injured.
According to a statement given to FBI special investigator
Timothy Ball by Melissa Lussier later on the morning of April 18th,
she, Anderson, and Leland Lussier were driving on the Copper City Road
when a
silver pickup truck came up behind them, flashing the high beams. Whitey, Melissa and Leland got out of the
car, and Randy Garrigan and Arnold Pemberton, Jr. got out of the pickup
truck. Garrigan and Pemberton allegedly
began shooting.
Leland Lussier, Jr. was hit in his rib cage and hand, and
Anderson was shot at least three times in his torso and right arm. Garrigan and Pemberton allegedly continued
their gunfire as Lussier and Anderson got back into their car. Melissa Lussier, who was unhurt, drove to
the Red Lake hospital.
The two injured men were taken to the North Country Regional
Hospital in Bemidji, then airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center
in the
Twin Cities, where Anderson remained in satisfactory condition on
Wednesday,
April 24th. Leland
Lussier,
Jr., had been released.
According to FBI special agent Keith Hanzel’s report, there
was shattered glass and blood on the Copper City road at the scene of
the
shooting, as well as 17 casings from a .223 caliber Ruger rifle and two
from a
.40 caliber Glock pistol. He also found
“several copper jackets and lead fragments in the road, apparently from
the
fired bullets,” as well as “a large amount of shattered safety glass,”
and
“drops and a pool of blood, along with pieces of bloody tissue.” He also reported that there were massive
amounts of blood in the front and rear seat of the white Oldsmobile and
broken
windows in the car.
FBI special agent Timothy Ball interviewed Garrigan and
Pemberton on April 18th.
According
to Pemberton, after he and Randy
Garrigan left the bar, Pemberton’s
cousin called on Garrigan’s cell phone and told him that Anderson and
Lussier
“were talking about getting ‘steel’ or guns, and coming after Pemberton
and
Garrigan.” Pemberton said that he
believed Anderson was a drug dealer and had access to guns, and so he
and
Garrigan went to Garrigan’s house and retrieved the Ruger .223 rifle
and .40
caliber pistol for self-protection. According
to the criminal complaint, Garrigan
told the FBI that when he
and Pemberton met the white Oldsmobile, “the car turned around, came up
behind
them flashing the high beams, and started swerving toward their truck
several
times. Finally, the car cut in front of
the truck, forcing them to stop.” Pemberton
told the FBI that when Anderson got
out of the car he was
“maybe holding a black handgun,” so, Garrigan grabbed the rifle and
started
shooting.
“He didn’t aim. He
just kept pulling the trigger,” according to Ball’s report. Ball said that Garrigan told him he did not
know how many rounds he fired.
The case is being prosecuted by U.S. Assistant Attorney Lisa
Biersay.
Leland Lussier, Jr., and Robert Charles “Whitey”
Anderson
are both Red Lake enrollees. According
to Press/ON’s genealogical records,
neither Randy Lee Garrigan nor Arnold James
Pemberton, Jr., are enrolled as members of any federally recognized
Indian
tribe.
The U.S. Justice Department has presumably taken jurisdiction because
the shooting victims are federally-recognized Indians and the shooting
took
place within the external boundaries of Red Lake Reservation. (Most of Redby is fee patent land restored
to federal trust status.) If the
shooting victims had not been enrolled Indians, the case would have
presumably
come under State jurisdiction even though the shooting took place on
Red Lake
reservation (State v. Holthusen, 113 N.W.2d 180).
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