Minneapolis teen sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for fatal shooting at Mall of America

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis teenager was sentenced Thursday to more than 30 years in prison for a fatal shooting that shut down the Mall of America during the 2022 holiday shopping rush.

Taeshawn Adams-Wright, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March for the killing of Johntae Hudson, 19, of Minneapolis. He is the first of the four accused to be sentenced. The other suspected shooter, Lavon Longstreet, 19, is scheduled to go to trial next week. Two minors face lesser charges.

The shooting occurred on the evening of December 23, 2022, after a fight broke out between two groups of teenagers in the Bloomington Mall, the nation's largest shopping center. Prosecutors said Adams-Wright and others chased Hudson into the Nordstrom store. Security video captured the chaos. Hudson was shot several times and died instantly. Police say he also fired shots during the confrontation and a gun was found near his body. A customer was hit by a bullet. The shopping center was closed.

Adams-Wright spoke briefly during her sentencing hearing.

“I want to apologize for causing pain and suffering to the victim’s family,” Adams-Wright said. “I am truly sorry for my actions.”

But Judge Paul Scoggin rejected his request for a lenient sentence and reprimanded him for his previous claims of self-defense.

“You and several others decided to hunt down someone and execute them,” Scoggin said. “We all saw that tape, and there can be no other definition of what happened that day. Your story of self-defense action that day? You weren't. You participated with a group of people to kill someone and it's that simple.

The judge imposed a sentence of 30 years and seven months. In Minnesota, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentence in prison and the remainder on supervised release.

Hudson's mother, Lynn Hudson, said afterward that the long sentence offered some hope for her family.

“I feel like I can breathe again,” she said. “We are so relieved that it went the way we wanted. We think that 30 years is not enough, but it is something.”